I hate oil leaks!

[Bowtie Bomber]

Alright, so my truck decided that she's fed up with holding oil. She use to have a small leak in the rear main, but now she's leaking in places I didn't know where possible! Just to name places, oil dip stick, rear main, front main (timing cover,crank) oil sending unit, and left valve cover (supposedly). And the thing is, is that no matter what I do they keep leaking! I put in a brand new $46.00 whole piece oil pan gasket. And she's still leaking in the front. The rear I wouldn't be fretting about since the rear main (post '86 one piece pain in the neck) is bad. She's also dripping from the dipstick I assume too. My starter is just COVERED in oil and if I drive it long enough, oil gets on the fly wheel and slings onto my headers. Then I smoke up like Toolmaster's epic BBQ.

Anyways, I have oil pooling in my intake manifold. I changed the valve cover gasket, even put MEK around the gasket area to get all the grease off. So I'm starting to suspect something else.

So to some all this up, oil is leaking, help!

[VileZambonie]

Oil leaks have plagued automotive engines since their birth. I have learned many sure fire techniques that assure leak free long operation and unfortunately your best bet sounds like you should either a) plug away one leak at a time or b) pull the engine and reseal it.

thread sealer on all of your bolts that pass through into water or oil passages works great.



Get rid of your intake manifold end seals and use a prick punch to make peaks and valleys and apply a bead of The right stuff RTV. It's made by permatex and comes in an easy cheese can. This stuff is THE best RTV out there. It's better than GMS or mopar sealant which are also very good RTV's.



2 piece rear main seals should be offset from the split line of the cap. The absolute slightest amount of RTV near the rear main bearing cap will also help from oil seapage.

Aviation is also an excellent product for core plugs and galley plugs



Even torque values and sequencing is also important. For flanges make sure you tighten in sequence to specs and repeat until all bolts are torqued correctly.

Strong valve covers or load spreaders help on vc leaks.

Just be patient and take the time to replace your seals and gaskets correctly and make sure you don't have excessive crankcase pressure before you replace your rear main seal.

[Lt.Del]

Do you have a high volume oil pump that is relatively new?  Those babies put out some oil pressure--sometimes too much.

I'd make sure your oil pan is true.  If it is warped at all, leaks will pop up in front/back/left/right/high/low, well, you get the idea. 

[choptop]

Make sure your pcv valve is working properly. If crankcase pressure builds to high, it will go somewhere and take the oil with it.