rock2001

I have an oil leak that appears to be from the rear seal, and the oil it leaking onto the starter and clutch slave, and being blown onto the exhaust where it smokes quite a bit and people think my car is on fire.

I see no leaks from the cam gaskets, but I read that there's an oil drain passage from the intake valley out to the bell housing, which would look like a rear seal issue. But supposedly this drain isn't on older cars? Does anyone know what years had that. I have an 84 Euro, and I do have a leak from the top of one of the cam towers that I had patched up (hacked), but is leaking again. It doesn't look like a severe leak, but it's possible that most of it found it's way into the intake valley, and maybe the leak is bigger then it looks. I was going to try and fix the rear seal before my DE event next week, but I usually take longer then that to do this stuff. If it's just a matter of temporarily re-patching (hacking) another RTV seal on the cam tower for now, I can certainly get that done. But if there's no drain from the valley, then I'm pretty confident it's the rear seal.

Thanks

linderpat

I don't recall seeing any drain in the vee of my car (86.5), and I just did the intake R&R, and thoroughly cleaned it all out.

SteveG

MY?

linderpat

hupp

If oil is finding its way into the valley, then its also finding its way down the back of the cam tower. The oil will travel along the cam tower to head seam and will end up dripping off the rear most bottom bolt onto the exhaust manifold. I've become an expert in chasing down cam tower leaks over the last couple of years -- but have been bone dry for a while now (knock on wood).

You may also have a leaks at the end cap seals.

rock2001

But without the drain, quite a pool would have to gather before it was able to escape the valley, right? I don't see that much in the valley (yet). It looks like the cam endcaps are bone dry right now.