Mysterious oil leak

CiscoBite1Time · Sep 17, 2012

Sorry for the long read!

I've been having an oil leak coming from my TB side for a few months now. I finally got time to remove things and try to investigate it. The goal was to take my TB cover off so I could have a better view of where it may be possibly leaking from. Keep in mind it doesn't leak if the car just idles. Only leaks when I drive the car. Before I did anything I drove the car round the neigbhorhood for a few minutes. I come back and the leak is there as expected.

I start tearing things apart and finally got my TB cover off. It's pretty clean behind the cover which is how i remember it when I did my TB job ealier this year. So I hook up everything back up minus the TB cover and PS. I drive around the neighborhood again, come back and the car does not leak one drop. As I scratch my head I deciide to drive the car again this time a bit longer. I come back and still no a single drop of oil.

I checked all bolts on my front case cover. I checked all my oil pan bolts on the TB side. I checked my OFH bolts. Everything is tight or redid to factory specs. I did however miss the auto tensioner bolt(s) which I just read while searching here. So I decide to put everything back including TB Started the car up and went around the block again twice. After each trip the mysterious leak re appears. Any ideas? Tonight i'm going to take everything off again to inspect. Maybe leave the TB cover off for a few days and wait to see if it will leak again.

mnim15 · Sep 17, 2012

Have you checked the cam seals? Usually those seem to leak more consistently though and would make a mess in the cover. Also, did you check to see if the oil filter stud was tight when you put the filter on?

CiscoBite1Time · Sep 17, 2012

Cam seals are clean. Inside TB is clean. I'll have to check the filter stud.

Artago · Sep 17, 2012

Oil Filter Housing maybe? I had a bad seal around the bolt under the TB cover area.

Let us know if/when you find it.

autodsm · Sep 17, 2012

Castle plug...I had a leak there and couldnt figure it out for the longest time. Looked like the pan was leaking but it was the castle plug.

CiscoBite1Time · Sep 17, 2012

I'll take another look tonight/tomorrow over what was suggested. I still can't figure out why it didn't leak when I was running it with no cover on. Bastard car!

autodsm · Sep 17, 2012

Fluke....if it 100% absolutely does not leak whatsoever without the cover on, then leave the cover off. By timing cover, I assume you mean the UPPER cover, not the LOWER cover.

1Gina2G · Sep 17, 2012

autodsm said:
Fluke....if it 100% absolutely does not leak whatsoever without the cover on, then leave the cover off. By timing cover, I assume you mean the UPPER cover, not the LOWER cover.

Im sure he he had both the covers off for testing, you really want both of them on when driving for long periods but not so bad for leak testing, not like the covers would ever cause or prevent a leak.

As for the where the leak is probably coming from..there's no telling. I'm in the same boat as the OP trying to figure out if my leak is actually fixed or not, at the front case.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/445632-front-case-oil-seals.html

The leak only happens after a few minutes with the engine running once the oil gets pretty warm. Even though I'm postive my new oil pump sprocket seal got scuffed, causing the leak, I went ahead and changed the gaskets for both the front case and OFH, all new rubber seals, and used threadlocker on all the bolts going through the front case, and some sealent on 1 of them that's recomended. (left of the crank)

Still had a leak..but apparently it was not a good idea to lubricate the seals with oil

I wanted to use the RTV but I didn't think it was recomended.

So I have redone everything mentioned once again, with the rtv. I Span the oil pump sprocket with a drill bit, after filling up the car with warm oil I purposley left in the sun, didn't get any leaks. Going to start up hopefully this weekend and I'm praying it's fixed. I hope some of the stuff above can help you get alot of things in if you're going to be taking out the timing soon, IF you expierence more leaking.

Mitsubishigst1999 · Sep 17, 2012

just throwing it out there did you check the gaskets from your oil return pipe from the turbo to the oil pan.

CiscoBite1Time · Sep 19, 2012

My oil return pipe is dry. I was able to take everything apart and put it back together minus the timing cover. Yes both upper and lower. I just ran out of time yesterday since it got dark. I'll inspect it tonight afterwork. I have an 90 oil cooler and OFH. I'm beginning to suspect that's the culprit. That's the only thing that makes sense as to the amount of oil that is collected on that side. But I won't know until later. I also bought some UV dye from napa the other day. Hopefully that helps pinpoint my leak(s).

Aramane · Sep 19, 2012

There is a bolt hole that leaks on the front cover, it usually presents itself after a botched balance shaft delete.

zedicus · Sep 19, 2012

Aramane said:
There is a bolt hole that leaks on the front cover, it usually presents itself after a botched balance shaft delete.

thats usually more of a 'theres more oil coming out then going in' leak. people either remember that bolt or forget it entirely.

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Mysterious oil leak

CiscoBite1Time

mnim15

CiscoBite1Time

Artago

autodsm

CiscoBite1Time

autodsm

1Gina2G

Mitsubishigst1999

CiscoBite1Time

Aramane

zedicus

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