concor

Got a little problem with my car yesterday.

I came out of a corner at the RDW test track at 120km/h and hit kickdown. The car shifted down and suddenly a huge black/grey cloud of smoke was behind me. The smoke even came through the open windows. I immediately pulled over and shut down the engine. There was an oil track behind me and a puddle of oil of about 50cm formed under the engine.

So I was hoping I could get some advice? I wanted to look under the car, clean it up and try to find what it is. If I can't find it, then I wanted to put new oil in it and start the engine to see where its leaking. Good plan?

Thanks

Doug_B_928

Others know far more than me and undoubtedly will chime in, but two possibilities that come to mind are bad crank seal and bad oil pump seal.

NoVector

I'm guessing the front main seal blew due to more internal pressure than your blow-by could handle. I'd take off your TB covers and have a look-see.

BTW - Nice looking car!

pjg

Could be an oil cooler hose or sending unit, you will need a lift or check stands to get a better look.

brutus

Yes that is what you need to do. It could even be an oil filter leaking but more likely oil cooler line. I doubt it was an oil seal but with that large a leak it should be pretty easy to see !

borland

What kind of oil is it? Power steering fluid or engine oil?

If you're not sure, check the fluid level in the power steering reservoir.

concor

hi there, thanks for all the replies.

I am going to look at it this Tuesday with a friend of mine.

That drawing is real helpful, there are a lot of places on that drawing were oil comes through

I had a look at the powersteering fluid and coolant fluid. Both look normal and are at normal level. I also noticed a 'check oil' message in red on the dashboard.

Mrmerlin

its a good chance the oil cooler line has failed,

best time is now to replace them both

concor

Okay, problem found. At least 7 of the oil pan bolts are finger loose. And the oil pan seal is coming out for about 2mm at max.

Dave928S

Loose sump bolts with accompanying leaks are not unusual, and you wouldn't normally expect a sudden dump of oil; it would be more likely to get worse over time until you have a wide oil stripe under your car and lots of drip points.

Even if that leak is bad, don't assume that's the only problem ... keep checking. Have you checked the cooler lines yet?

Any oil coming from high up on either side at the junction of the cam box with the head? ... the gaskets there can blow out when you're flogging the motor, and the cam boxes are full of oil, and give a massive leak.

concor

hi guys, it's my inter cooler lines after all! We started the engine for 2 seconds after tightening the oil pan's 30 bolts (managed to reach 28 orso) and splash a new little oil pool under the car. The top oil hose of the two intercooler lines has a leak. It's like a nice booming oil spring coming out of it.

So, time to order a new one and continue this adventure later.

concor

Made some videos of the oil leak in action:

rexpontius

Real bummer, is the line easy to get-to / replace?

Love the youtube videos :-)

What where you doing at the RDW test-track? Modifications you needed to approve?

Groeten uit Nederland ;-)

Dave928S

Don't just replace one ... do both at the same time. It won't take you much longer, and if one's gone the other will be on the way out too.

jpitman2

I replaced mine with rebuilds a few years ago now, and when I checked (later) the price of genuine hoses, there was very little saving, if any. Definitely should have gone genuine, seeing as the rebuilder added a few mm for good measure, which produced kinks, and I had to have them redone...
jp 83 Euro S AT 54k