Engine oil leak

rollsman44 · Post by **rollsman44** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:04 pm

My 65 has a small leak coming from the engine. Any ideas what may be causing this? The oil pan gasket is ok. The mechanic thinks it might be one of the seals( front or real). If he is correct I don't know how much this job should cost me . Thank you, rollsman

vince · Post by **vince** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:42 am

Is your mechanic uncertain if its a front or rear main seal or was it not clear to you what he said? Pretty easy to see either of these are leaking. If he is not certain which is leaking, you may have the wrong mechanic. Maybe he's talking about the front and rear of the intake, these do tend to leak over time. Should be able to clean up the area with brake cleaner and put a spray trace on it, let it run and be a little more certain about the source.

rollsman44 · Post by **rollsman44** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:03 pm

Hi Vince. he said he corrected the leak after it cost me $600.00 for him to drop the Tranny and he said the bolts that are on the engine were causing the leak. Gave the car back to me and still had the leak. Then he told me it could be this or that or....... I did not go back to him. I have to find someone else but I want to see what could cause the leak so I don't get screwed again. I am pretty upset and want to correct this leak. I appreciate whatever suggestions or recommendations you have. Thanks you,

Ian M Greer · Post by **Ian M Greer** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:01 pm

Apart from the rear main ,the usual areas of concern are the rear gasket on the intake manifold and the rear of the valve cover gaskets . Ian

rollsman44 · Post by **rollsman44** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:32 pm

I dont smell any oil. I assume that the oil is not coming from the valve covers. Maybe under the engine

vince · Post by **vince** » Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:58 am

Not to be trite but you need to find the first area that is wet with oil. Oil will leak down and around but seldom up. Sounds as if your valve covers are OK. As pointed out the rear of the intake is a frequent leaker. That will dribble down the back of the engine and may head over the tranny case. Could also be the heads. Could be the pan gasket.

Clean everything up real well then watch where oil is coming from. Sounds easy but you don't have lots of room. Probably need one of those mirrors on a stick.

Dropping the tranny means he was going after the rear main seal. Maybe it was leaking also. Be happy he did not go after those "two engine bolts" those were probably holding the intake at the rear. If he just tightened those with replacing the gaskets he probably would have warped your intake.

If the intake and you tackle yourself check blogs here and Thunderbird Ranch site for helpful hints. One of the reasons for the leaks are the gaskets don't cover the whole surface they are aided by the CORRECT use of silicone. That's where the hints come in.

RedBird64 · Post by **RedBird64** » Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:06 pm

One of the best things I've done to my eng was eliminating those front and rear gaskets. The new intake gasket set I bought didn't come with them and simply installing a bead of silicone and letting it dry has worked great. No leaks since I installed the manifold 16 years ago and it even makes for a cleaner appearance. If the heads have been milled much this technique is just about mandatory since there may not be room for those gaskets anymore.
As far as the rear main, from what I remember you can't do it from the trans side. You have to remove the eng oil pan to get to it. Not a super hard job but not much fun either as the oil drips on you the whole time your working on it.

rollsman44 · Post by **rollsman44** » Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:13 pm

I appreciate all the recommendations. Thank you. I will find another mechanic that knows more about my car. Thanks, rollsman

scumdog · Post by **scumdog** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 2:23 am

I weigh the cost of fixing a few drops of oil vs the cost of topping up that oil.

So far the topping up side of the ledger is winning!