joejoe

My '81 has sprung a leak. Started to town today and about 2 mile down the road saw a faint cloud coming from my car. Pulled over, shut car off and opened hood expecting to see a mess. Other than a small amount of smoke the engine bay is pristine (very original). Close hood and look under car from driver side and there is a small puddle (about 1/2 dollar) and oil coming off starter.

Fire car up, drive home and about 1/4 mile from house I am now making a smoke screen you can hide behind. Shut car off and coast into driveway and into garage. With extinguisher ready pop hood and all is still dry but behind car from road is a steady line of oil.https://rennlist.com/forums/graemlins/bigcry.gif

Looking under car there is a plate size oil puddle growing and oil seeming to come from rear motor area around starter. At this time I saw only one thing to do and got into the grey '86.5 and headed to town to get dinner for my dad.

Well I am back now (obviously) and wonder if anyone has an idea of what I may be in for or what to look at. Was hoping to head to Bakersfield tomorrow and maybe catch up with oldfrat and compare the two. While this won't happen I still need to fix my baby. Any thoughts appreciated.

Ducman82

Maybe the rear main seal?

joejoe

Ducman that is my guess at this time. Are these prone to taking a cr@p like this? The car had zero leaks before this.

Lizard928

It is also possible to be the cam tower rear seal, or the cam tower seal itself.

granprixweiss928

/\ what he said...

when the cam tower end seals fail, the oil runs down the V of the block and around the bellhousing. they are just cork.

but it could be a corner of a cam tower seal too. mine do that a little.

The Forgotten On

That leak sounds pretty serious so my guess would be the rear main seal as I don't think a cam tower seal would leak that much oil and get worse that quickly.

joejoe

When I bought this car it had major leaks from cam towers, had the distributor pulled and reoriented 1 spline off and the distributor set at full advance. (ran like a raped ape but only got 10mpg) To fix I pulled motor for reseal and engine bay cleaning. When installed it developed rear passenger tower drip that would land on exhaust.

Okiefied this leak with rtv to miss exhaust and it proceeded to make a mess of underbody. Pulled motor again to address and fix. Car was leak free for over 10 years and now this. Sadly I just spent all my pennies on half price sale (and a new fuel pump for one of the '86.5.)

Mrmerlin

did you use the new style silicone orange gaskets for the rear of the cam towers?,
at 10 YO its possible the cork could have failed.
Roger sells them

Jetdriver69

Before I pulled the engine for rebuild, it leaked from the front and rear cam seals, the front and rear main seal, the oil pan gasket and probably a few other places.

After disassembling the engine, the head gaskets were just about to go.

It was a lot of work, but it sure us nice to look at a clean engine with no leaks to deal with anymore.

mickster

A little threadsurrection here...
Found a nice pool of oil-that went into the belly pan and also behind it. Basically centered and if I was looking under the car-the front edge of the pool would be perpendicular to the back of the front wheel well arches (does that make sense) and pools back to a bit before the cats. Not a lot of oil but a good spread-maybe 20" x 20". Haven't move it or jacked it up yet but guessing either the rear main seal or rear cam tower blew out (what was that pin fix Porsche made?) 89 S4.