John V

A few monthes back I did major timing belt service on my '81 5 Speed, and replaced just about everything in the vacinity including oil sender, tensioner, h20 pump, alt. main seals etc. A few week back, I checked the oil and it was down a little so I added some and topped it off. The following week I checked again and it was a little over full. I think when I checked it the first time, the car may not have been level.

Yesterday, I noticed a few drops of oil on the garage floor and crawled underneath to get a look. I'm not sure if this could be an over full problem or a seal problem. It looks like its coming from the driver side front cam drive pulley area. It looks like its been dripping for little while as it has run down and been blown around a bit so its hard to tell the exact point of origin. Anyone know if there is a common failure or seal in that area? Could over filling cause this in the 4.5 Litre engine?

Thanks

Curt

John, my 79 had a slight leak from that area that gradually got worse. It ended up being the seal behind the distributor housing. There are about 3 or 4 seals on that side. 1 just behind the cam gear in the dist. housing (front) 1 in the rear of the dist. housing (back) a small seal in the back and bottom of the dist. housing (back) and 1 more in the dist. housing I believe. Anyway, I replaced all of them and my leak was gone. Mine for sure was the big "O" ring in the back of the dist. housing. It was smashed flat and hard as a rock. It broke apart when removed.

My oil pump also had the same problem. I replaced the large "O" ring on the back of that also.