^^ +1, your oil pan gasket looks fine, I had the same oil leak and I wound up replacing the front seals of the engine, particularly the cam seals, and the front balance shaft seal. It took care of the problem. It's a whole lot easier than the oil pan gasket I tell ya. Do you have a puddle of oil on your oil filter mount? If you do it's most likely your camshaft O ring seal.

If you have power steering check for leaks all the way up to the reservoir. Mine had a line cut where the PO didn't secure it and it rubbed against a pulley.

Also you won't get an oil leak from the oil to water cooler. The oil portion is surrounded by the coolant.



King of all 944 fluid leaks!

 

in the pic where I circled it that is the bulging out oil pan gasket so the oil pan definately will need to be eventually replaced but if the majority of my oil leak is coming out from somwhere else I want to get that fixed first and leave the oil pan for later.

the circled part of the oil pan in the pic I can pull the seal out between teh oil pan with my fingers so I imagine it leaks a little at least.

no my camshaft seal looks fine there is no oil that far up but there is a bit fo oil I spoted above the oil pan gasket as well around the oil cooler/ oil filter housing area.

 

oh ok so I can't get a leak from the oil filter housing ?

I swar I saw a big oil droplet with green in it so it looked like there was some coolant on it and I don't have a coolant leak.

I did all the front timing belt seals last summer and I did remove the timing belt cover when I saw my oil leak thinking a seal popped out but I didn't seal any oil inside the timing belt cover

if I'm not mistaken all the timing belt oil seals / balance shaft seals woudl create a leak inside the timing belt arae as well.

except that tiny camshaft housing seal but I don't see a leak coming from up there.

is it possible that the lower balance shaft O-Ring is leaking? how would I know?

I remember when I replaced the lower balance shaft housing seals the one bolt that goes in from the rearwas pretty hard to turn and I had to use a lot of force to get it in but I'm pretty srue thi sis fine.....

 

Did you replace the O ring that seals the camshaft gear housing to the cam cover? That's where mine was and it didn't look like it was from there either, but after changing everything else, that fixed it. I tried 3 different oil filters also and tightened them down so far that I had to cut them off. trust me if you didn't change the O ring on the cam shaft gear cover, it's probably it. The balance shaft O rings could cause that but I doubt you'll get oil all the way up by the oil filter unless it's being carried up there by the timing/balance shaft belts. Mine just left a puddle right underneath it.

Also if the oil pan gasket isn't leaking don't taunt it. It's more of a PITA than you can imagine, not to mention all the while you're in there stuff you should do. some bulging btw is normal, again don't taunt it.

Good luck,

King of all 944 fluid leaks!

 

There is a dye that you can buy and put in your oil. It glows under a black light. Run the car with it in the oil long enough to present a leak and check around for the trail of glowing oil. Follow it to the leak.

 

yeah I replaced every single seal to dow with the balance shaft / timing belt area, all o-rings, seals, even the bearings and the mylar gaskets. I don't see a drop of oil inside the timing belt cover and I'm pretty sure the O rings are not leaking outside the housings.

yeah the oil pan gasket does look like a pain to replace, I don't even see how you get get a torque wrench on all those bolts to torque it up properly, looks like you might need a torque screwdriver which are pretty damn expensive.

well the one part that is bulging can be moved in and out so I assume it leaks but I though about applying so high temp silicone like the right stuff around it to seal it up but then when you want to remove the oil pan it wil be tough to get it out.

I already siliconed the hole front of the oil pan seal where it goes around the oil pump and this stuff is pretty tuff and is stuck to the oil pump so when I go to remove the oil pan it will be siliconed to the oil pump so it will be a pain to remove the silcione to detache the pan.




That dye stuff sounds interesting, I doubt I can find it though I'll ask around

 

I was checking my oil pan today and I was shocked to find that the left side of the oil pan is missing 6 botls in a row......

how bad is this...... amazing how the left side with 6 missing oil pan botls is not leaking. I was pretty stunend, hope this doesnt' mean someoen stripped the threads.......

 

That's because there's 40 million other bolts holding it on...

 

I couldn't find that product you use with a black light to find leaks.

not sure what I'm going to do now the oil pan seal may not be the main thing leaking and I may just waste a lot of time replacing it and still have a leak. I used 3 cans of degreaser so far and still there is grease baked on in many spots so I have to buy some more cans tomorrow.

not sure if I'll be able to spot a leak becuase obviously when it leaks it'll get all over the places.

hope I can spot the leak and not have to replace every single seal and gasket.

 

can I order that leak spotting stuff online? that sounds handy if it glow in the dark then you can accurately spot the leak.

 

How to:

http://autorepair.about.com/od/other...indleaks_2.htm


http://www.popularmechanics.com/how_...71.html?page=2

Where to buy:

http://www.autobarn.net/fluorleakdet1.html

http://www.amazon.com/Fluorescent-Le.../dp/B0007ZAJ9A

 

ok thanks for the info.

the review written on amazon says that the dye stuff doesn't work well with the black light which that guy used.

I was also wondering about this, do you need to use some really expensive black uv light to get the results?

I degreased teh engien pretty good with like 4 cans of engien degreaser didn't scrub much but it's clean enough I think to find a leak especially with that UV stuff.

I'm checking nappa tomorrow to see if they have it if not then I'm getting it off ebay as they ship USPS and they ahve a package of six bottles.

 

How much oil are you talking about? Before i tore my engine down i was leaking from about 3 places but nothing that noticeable on the oil dipstick. Its a fact of life these cars will leak a little oil if its not bad you might just want to let it go for now and enjoy driving your car, just keeping an eye on your oil consumption.

 

Just remember when torquing down the pan bolts that you need to start in the middle, go across to the other side, and work your way to the end. Don't expect to tighten them down all in one shot. Rather work the pattern above several times, nice and easy, and remember, you are tightening a steel bolt into aluminum threads. Don't over torque.

I just been through this when replacing rod bearings and putting a crank scraper in (got good results ).

 

Pull the two bolts out on each mount. If they're old mounts, they'll have an upper bolt and lower nut. If newer its just a longer bolt that threads into the mount. You should have them out to make it not hang up when dropping the cross member and putting it back in. There's a 1000# engine support at Harbor Freight and can be gotten on sundays for 20% off typically. I just got mine for $50, taxes included.