My final solution to oil leak

[ADrewzki]

It's not to sell the car but I've had it with the oil leak. I fixed the leak up top and now it's leaking by the filter bracket. It has some sort of leak everytime I used those cheap mitsu paper gaskets so I'm thinking I'm going to clean it off and RTV the damn oil pump cover on there as well as the oil filter bracket. I don't see any downsides to it. In fact, I would assume it would seal better and the copper rtv that I use has a pretty high temp rating. I'm thinking it should work fine.

Has anyone tried this? Would the pressure that it sees during startup mess with the rtv? -Drew

 

[psychlow]

I think you're going to have to be the guinea pig on this one, bud.

I'd try using a very thin layer of it. Just enough to fill the surface imperfections and leave a thin film on it.

 

[gsx951]

The paper O.E.M. gasket should seal just fine. I've never had a problem with leaks around the gasket. Most issues with this part involve the stud loosening.
You can cetainly seal the filter housing with silicone but be sure not to use it in excess. A glob of silicone in your motor won't be good.
My preferrence is to use the factory gasket with a very thin coat of RTV on both sides of the gasket. If that leaks, you have a problem elsewhere.

 

[ADrewzki]

Yeah, honestly I've never had a problem with the paper gasket either until the 6 bolt went in. I'm starting to think that maybe the front surface isn't perfectly flat. Either way, I think the gasket + RTV idea is a good one. Maybe some rtv all around the edge of the cover and bracket. I'll keep you guys posted on Wednesday after the silicon has had time to cure.

 

[ADrewzki]

I put new gaskets on the oil pump cover as well as a new gasket on the oil filter housing. I actually put RTV on the entire surface of each gasket as well because I definitely didn't want anything to leak by. I made sure to clean the surface off with brake cleaner beforehand also. Had the oil pan off as well because the cover was off and I let everything cure for around 3-5 days. Also, the silicon on the oil pan also cured for around 3-5 days after I put that back on. Thread sealant on all the bolts and everything torqued down tight. IT'S STILL LEAKING!! I'm so frustrated right now. It's leaking in the bottom lefthand corner of the oil pump cover. I can see it dripping out of there. I am starting to think that either the block itself has a defect there or the oil pump cover does. Does anyone have an ideas as to what I can try next? By the way, the RTV that I used was the high temp one that's orange in color.

 

[kalla]

Did you inspect the front case to verify that it wasn't damaged in some way, like cracked or dented? Are you absolutely sure that this is where the oil is coming from?

 

[ADrewzki]

The front cover was purchased brand new with slowboy's swap kit and it's got maybe 12k on it. It's from Topline so I'm wondering if it's just a flaming piece of crap. I'm gonna stop by Mitsu and get an OEM front cover and see if that fixes the problem. I'll prime the oil pump with a drill and double check the oil leak. I'm 99% positive that's where it's from though. Hopefully a new cover will fix it. Otherwise, I'm thinking maybe the block has a defect in that particular place. Also, would it be bad to use 2 of those paper gaskets as opposed to one? Has anyone had any luck with the gasket material that napa sells? I'd even go as far as I make my own gasket to see if it helps.

 

[HighPSIRacing]

I had similar probs with my 7-bolt front cover and filter housing after rebuilding my head. I used Ultra Copper RTV to seal everything up and no probs yet. I've only put 2k on it but I'll let everyone know if I do run into any probs.

L8

 

[kalla]

I used the topline front case in my rebuild and I swear that you wouldn't know it was OEM if you weren't told, it looks like it was made from the exact same mold.

I will tell you to be sure that ALL the bolts are replaced the front cover, and that they are torqued to exactly the specification; if one or more are loose, it is possible that oil could seep around the gasket.

 

[ADrewzki]

Yep. I tripled check everything because this oil leak has been plaguing me with problems for almost 6 months now. I just scraped off a 1/4 inch of oily muck from the underside of the car due to the leak and I'm sure as hell determined to fix it. I did get a new OEM front cover from Mitsu today and new gaskets again. I've bought 4 sets of gaskets from them in the past 3 weeks. . I'll just try it again with a little more RTV and the OEM cover and keep everyone updated.

 

[ADrewzki]

Got it all taken care of today. The new OEM front cover with a real thin layer of rtv did the trick just fine. She's running so sweet again it's making me nervous that something is fixin' to break. Anyway, I did figure out what the hell the issue was and, I tell ya, I feel like an uber-idiot. When I took off my old front cover gasket, I normally just unbolt the oil filter housing and let it dangle. There was a small patch of old gasket material behind the filter housing that I didn't see the last 12487 times and it was right around the dowel that in the corner from where it was leaking. I really don't understand why I didn't catch it sooner. I removed all the old stuff and meticulously checked everything else and voila! No more leak. Also, there was a bolt missing from the cover. It's a 10mm bolt that goes to the right of the auto-tensioner. I assumed that nothing went in this hole because it was so huge. I believe that some oil was leaking from the top of the cover as well due to this. Anyway, I wanted to thank all you guys for the help and, since the motor was apart for so long, I made a timing belt faq for people to look at so check it out and comment on it.

-Drew