Under car, rear left of engine, attached to crankcase. Oddly shaped box with a cap on the left side sealed with a gasket. Mine appears to be leaking an oily residue around the seal. It's not dripping, but I suspect I need a new gasket.

 

oops, terrible pic but you can see that the area in question is directly behind the rear left sway bar fastener. Note the oily reside near the bolt.

 

Bumping cause curiosity is killing me. I can't find anything about this area in the shop manuals as they seem to focus only on the right side of the engine. My best guess is that this area houses an oil evacuation pump for the left head. Any ideas? Bueler?

 

The valve cover is pretty big. There are two cams on top and bottom covered with the center having the spark plug coils. Both ends have sort of chanels for cam chains in front then bearing in the rear. Inboard of the valve cover in the area you mention rear left is a halls sensor for the cams. But its located on the back side of the engine inboard of the valve covers. There are two should be cam caps that should be light green. Right now only thing I can think of is a coil pack sitting on a sparkplug. If you have the service manual try page 2-8 for an idea of what you are seeing part of.

 

That is right below the AOS, I suspect the rubber bellows is split and leaking some oil. Very hard to tell with the bad picture.....

Rick
99 996C4
87 944S

 

Check to see if it is leaking around the solenoid for the cam advance. This is a pretty common leak. You can replace the flange/seal or use a little sealant. These pictures might help.

 

Silly me thinking he meant rear left of engine not front left I should of thought while looking at the picture.

 

Dharn did you pull the engine out of the Edmund Fritzgerald?

Nice call on the solenoid cover. I think mine might be leaking too! Thanks for the photo!

 

Flux capacitor is a standard answer to hard questions on engine issues. Or Hyper drive

 

I don't know why they called the part of the engine that faces the front of the car the "rear" of the engine. Except for midengine Porsche #1in 1948 the fan or pulley end of 356\911\912.. engine always faced the rear of the car. That is until 914 brought mid engine back.

 

Maybe it is the Turbo Encabulator?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDgQg6bq7o

 

That my friends is an engine that was in a car that went through 8 or 9 Chicago Winters. I drive my car year round, rain snow or whatever, non of this concours crap for me (although I am a little jealous of the way Orients engine looks, but then he lives in CA). I did clean mune up a little before I put it back in, but it is hard to get all that corrosion off without a chemical cleaning. The head I had fixed looked like new when it went back in. But that was last fall, after this winter it probably is not looking that good.

 

is that a plug on the AOS.... is that where all that weeping oil is coming from Doug?

 

The AOS in the pictures is the original one on the car. It was actually replaced twice. Once when I first put the engine back together and in the car. That one, which was "NOS" failed quickly, and then I bought the latest version through Sunset.

The engine was pretty messy when I first dropped it. The intermix took place in 9/08 and I parked the car over the next 6 months in my garage. Chipmunks or something took up residence on the top of the engine as the next spring when I started working on it the top was covered with seed shells, etc. Before I took out the engine I pulled off the oil cooler to test it, which also made quite a mess. The engine really did not have any bad leaks, other than the cracked head that is.

It had leaked around the cam solenoids once and they had been sealed by my indy with what looked like JB Weld.

 

The salt sure does a number on the aluminum. Makes a slight oil seepage a good thing.