Shawn Stanford

Okay, the more I drive the car, the worse the oil leak seems to get. I'm not a mechanic, but I'm guessing that's not a Good Thing. I can see some oil on one side of the motor, which I think is the typical back of the valve cover seepage. The other side is clean. Most of the oils seems to be down around the pan. Pan gasket, maybe?

Anyway, looking for some ideas before I hand over my car (and a paycheck) to my indy.

Ducman82

oil pan gasket looks bulged for sure. and some coming down from the top. check the cam tower/valve cover on that side.

SeanR

This is the ancient gasket we pulled from Rogers GTS yesterday. It was leaking quite a bit and as you can see from the picture, it was really bad at the right rear.

WyattsRide

Advise given to me when I was trying to figure out my oil leaks.

First clean and dry the underside of the engine, pan, cross member, back side of the cam cover..etc.... as thoroughly as possible. Then run the engine to temp. Starting off clean will help identify where the leaks are originating from.

Shawn Stanford

This is the thing that took three of you all weekend? Oh, man...

Ducman82

pretty hard to do that with beers/wine in your hand... :-P

StratfordShark

Your pan gasket may not be exclusive source of oil, but it's bound to be contributing to the total since it is bulging out so much. I wonder if the pan bolts have been frequently nipped up by previous owner, and they've gone too tight?

I changed mine recently and replaced with the cork gasket and kept the original bolts, but many here are big fans of silicone gasket and studs to make install easier (I found install was much easier than disassembly even with the bolts, since everything was clean for the install). Reading a lot of the threads on cork v silicone it seemed the silicone was more demanding of precise torque, but the's no doubt it is not prone to hardening and seeping that is the fate of cork over time.

Bertrand Daoust

Shawn,
There's great chance that it comes from both places (valve cover and oil pan) if everything is original.

+1 to what Rick said.

Shawn Stanford

Thanks, everyone.

I suspect it is coming from both places. I'll try to clean up as best I can under there and confirm where it's coming from.

linderpat

Shawn - don't forget to look at the rear cam seals (can't remember the year of your car; maybe add to your sig). Often, that is the leak source on 32 valve engines and not the cam cover gasket, and the cam seals are a fairly easy diy. As Rick said, clean everything well, run it for a bit, then carefully inspect. I also agree with others. That oil pan gasket looks way over torqued. Nothing to do with it now except repalce it. That's a diy job too, but a huge one. Not sure I'd do it.

Lastly, just as an observation, that ground wire looks like it could use a good cleaning. Also, make sure the contact points at the engine and body are nice and shiney. You may see other little problems disappear.

Shawn Stanford

I have an 82 with an automatic. I should add that to my .sig.

UpFixenDerPorsche

I've just located the source of an oil leak that had the underside of the engine looking like yours. Took me ages actually, and just when I thought I had it ... woosh ... oil everywhere again.

The leak is at the base of the oil filler neck, either the gasket or a breather tube. Oil pools in recesses below the neck and when I brake hard it overflows over the front of the engine. The more I rev the motor the more the oil overflows.

I'm about to remove the manifold to get at the leak, partly because the manifold needs refreshing and partly because I can't get one bolt out of the coolant bridge (which is the easier way to get at the filler neck).

HTH

sstrickstein

My 84 weeped like that when I got it. The pan bolts were way loose. I snugged them with a box wrench and no more leak. Still, I'm gonna replace the gasket soon. Hey the cork gasket lasted 30 years on mine. I think I'll stick with it.

Bertrand Daoust

I don't think an oil filler neck leak would be that bad...
Unless you don't look under the hood very often!

I fixed an oil filler neck leak on my car last spring and it was nothing like this.
This looks more like a bad pan gasket and/or a valve cover gasket to me. But...