ViribusUnits

If ya'll will remember back, I had a problem. Lost of power, with a largish oil leak on the side of the road. Also, some bluish smoke coming from the passengers side of the engine, somewhere near the front. Following that, a smallish oil leak and a lack of power over 4,000 rpm.

I have been through the car several times over. I really have no idea whats causing the issue.

Tonight, it started doing the smoking thing again. Clearly from under the passengers side timing belt cover. I stuck my finger in the vent hole, and it was covered in newish motor oil. Clearly oil on the inside of the timing belt cover.

Right now I'm thinking that the passengers side cam seal has failed pretty badly. The oil seems to be coming from that general location. So I'm going to pull the whole front side of the motor off, and fix what needs to be fixed. The car needs a water pump too, so I'll probably do that as well.

Any suggestions as to whats causing the bluish/whitish, oil smelling, smoke?

Thanks.

perrys4

Burning oil !!!????.....Just thought I would help. ( sorry )

Drewster67

Belt rubbing away?.

Vlocity

I'm with Andrew.
Does the belt appear to be the correct width when you look in through the vent? Does either the front or the back of the belt appear to be shiny? If you have been following Big Daves thread I had a similar issue, but caught that the belt was rubbing on the guide and actually wearing down. Mine was about 3/4 the width it should be when I caught it.

An oil leak on its own should not be causing a power issue.....not much else I can offer since I am not familiar with the early motors....but give that belt a careful look and make sure it does not appear to be to thin.

Ken

jpitman2

iTS only a few minutes work to pull the top cover on the 1-4 bank to check the belt. Could be cam oil seal, crank seal, oil pump seal, tensioner oil leak???? Are you losing much oil, or is it a small leak looking big because of smoke etc?
jp 83 Euro S AT 48k

ViribusUnits

I know. I've already pulled the cover, and didn't see anything intersting. So I'm going to pull it, and whatever else I need to to find the oil leak. Peroid.

I'm not loseing any oil on the dip stick, but it sure is makeing a mess of my engine bay and drive way. While I'm not one for a clean engine bay or drive way, this is a bit excessive.

I still havn't figured out what would get hot enough to cause the oil to smoke, asside from the exaust mannafold, which I can assure you I checked, the the smoke was NOT comeing from there. Something inside the timeing belt covers, but what the heck could get that hot. Only thing I can think of is a galled bearing. (yikes!)

SharkSkin

Could it be a main seal, slinging oil up the belt to the cam tower? From there it's a short trip to the exhaust manifold. When you look down the vent tube on the cam cover, is smoke really forming inside the covers? Or could it be getting on the exhaust and causing a big enough cloud that you just haven't pinned down the source? I suppose it could be a tensioner leak, but it wouldn't leak for very long.

Garth S

There's not enough oil in a tensioner to cause any of these problems - besides, when they leak, they tend to 'drool' out the bottom.
I recently cleaned up a series of oil leaks on the front end of the '80: all of the (4) seals were fine - the leaks were from the large O-rings and gallery seals ( and dist. o-ring) in the cam tower end housings. I point this out, besause if you're chasing what seems to be a seal leak, another $10-15 will also fix/refresh these areas.
As to the power loss, now with the covers off - have you confirmed cam timing and tension? With lots of oil on the TB, it may be possible to slip a tooth, especially on start up. This is a (remote) possibility for the +4000 rpm power loss.
There's not too much under the covers that should get hot enough to smoke oil - except the tensioner roller. everything else is in contact with a heat sink of one sort or another with eithetr coolant or oil flow.

WallyP

If you have a hole (say the cam seal is REALLY gone) you could be getting blow-by from the crankcase, which would account for all of your symptoms...