SecaBlue

Bought this car last year... I am sure engine was clean when I took delivery, and have since driven only approx 1000km. Now I see this oil residue on top of the engine... it did have a top refresh not so long ago with a new cylinder head... should I be concerned? Car has original block done 250,000km.

jhowell371

That's more oil than mine has put out in over 10,000 miles. Can't tell if it's coming from the black plugs or the bolts. Using a hex key gently check each bolt to see if they are loose.. Those bolts break easily and the threads in the head can strip even easier. I forget the torque specs but they are easy to look up. YMMV

SecaBlue

Thanks... will check. Meanwhile will try to clean up as best as possible and monitor it. I have also gone back to the mechanic that has worked on the car for the last 15yrs or so prior to my ownership.

paver

My S2 was leaking quite a bit of oil from the two black plugs. Enough oil that it would pool in the contour of the valve cover. I found that the o-rings on the plugs were wrong and/or worn out. The new oem o-rings I put on gave a much tighter fit. It's only been a couple of hundred miles but so far it has solved the problem.

Scott at Team Harco

I agree - the o-rings on the plugs look to be the source of the oil. You have to remove the cam cover to access the snap rings that hold the plugs in place. Until that can be done, have a look in each of the spark plug holes, Not as likely, but oil can get past the circular gaskets around the plug holes. In extreme cases, this can even cause plug fouling misfire. If oil is getting into the spark plug holes - re-sealing the cam cover (including the o-rings on the little black plugs) is needed.

Items #6, #7 and #10 in the diagram:




I think there are kits out there that contain these parts and more. Pelican has a listing. Unless you've got a more serious issue, the items above should be enough.

SecaBlue

ok... interesting! My next question was how I replace those o-rings... now answered

Really didn't want to remove the cam cover... why on earth they have plugs that can't be accessed from above is beyond me. Is there any point to them apart from eventual leaking? :P

paver

I think the S2 cam cover was co-opted from the 928. On the 928 there are some hoses that come out of those holes that are apparently just blanked off on the S2.
I recently changed everything on my cam cover. Bolts, thrust washers, grommets, gasket, spark plug seals, the two plugs and their o-rings. Also did the cam chain tensioner pads. I'm not much of a mechanic but it wasn't that hard. This video helped

Jfrahm

The bolt seals look like a source of oil to me. Particularly the leftmost top one pictured, with the trail of oil leading down from it. 92810411502 These are pretty cheap on Ebay
I do not know if oil could be wicking up rather than flowing down, maybe that's possible. At any rate it's good to replace those seals and the spark plug well seals when you go in to check the cam chain and tensioner pads. If these seals were re-used when the head was replaced maybe they skipped replacing some other stuff as well.

SecaBlue

I checked all the bolts and they were tight... so I have cleaned up the residue and will wait until I run the engine again to see the source. Yeah, I could just go ahead and replace all the seals, gaskets and o-rings now while the car is parked up, but depends on how much time I will have. I am pretty sure the tensioner pads were done recently, so may be a job I leave for next Winter. Meanwhile will hear back from the mechanic, as I would have thought when he did the head, he would have replaced all the seals at the same time.

All good info from everyone though will keep you posted