Rip It

I just spoke to the shop and Jeff said the exhaust valve guides were shot, .050" of slop. He thinks that may be the problem, causing the cam housing to be pressured resulting in leakage. I did have alot of oil grime under the intake that appears to have come from the oil seperator. Its top hose also was cracked and dry rotted.
IN YOUR OPINION....would this cause oil leakage "only" from the bottom bolts of the cam housing ?
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86 951

Rip It

Also the oil grime on the separator could be from sloppy oil pouring for 24 years. May not be related to the blow by at the exhaust valve guides.

Chris White

Worn guides are common but they don’t usually cause the cam tower to leak. I have seen some engines with huge crankcase pressure form bad rings that leaked everywhere except the cam tower.

I think your mechanic needs to keep looking….the mating surfaces have to be flat…

gt37vgt

50 tho is like a ***** in a shirt sleeve...are you sure its not 5tho??? wich is still lots..

Chris White

I am guessing that he is measuring deflection at the valve head not the gap at the stem.


And the phrase ‘nothing up my sleeve’ comes to mind…

67King

No way. You should get a lot more pressure from blowby from the rings. You are probably burning a bit of oil, and may burn the valve, so it needs to be fixed, but it isn't going to cause an external oil leak.

Rip It

He is just guessing at the slop, I am sure he didn't make a measurement. My car doesn't smoke except during start-up, maybe 1 second of black exhaust. When I purchased the car it had 120k and the rear end use to get sooty and it used/mostly leaked oil. I discovered the oxygen sensor was unplugged and after reconnecting it the oil consumption and soot were gone. I had the oil cooler resealed and that fixed the leak until this cam housing issue. I use mobile 1 and in 5k miles it uses about 1/2 quart. I change it and and filter every 5k. The intake manifold had heavy soot inside as did the headers. The engine has 170k on it and you could argue as to whether there's a ridge or not in the cylinders. This car is truly an amazing machine. I will happy when I resolve the leak.
Thanks for your inputs.

Tom M'Guinn

I'd pull the tower and check it and the top of the head with precision straight edge. Also make sure the AOS hose is connected and breathing freely back to the j-boot or catch can.