please help oil leak

[scottyp873]

Hi all

please help me i have a bad oil/water leak under the inlet manifold on my 350i (1984). And clues on what it may be and how to rectifie this problem would be a great help .

thanks all and happy motoring

[ed_crouch]

If its coolant, then its probably the heater pipes that run out under the back on the inlet manifold. They may have corroded and become holed. Oil leaks in that area indicate a problem with the valley gasket? The other consideration is that fluids can travel along near-flat surfaces, so the leak can be evident some way from where the oil is actually leaking.

Other possibility is a leaky rocker box gasket allowing oil to leak down past the injectors and into the valley? Cork rocker box gaskets are ste, never got on with them. You can buy silicone ones for a tennerish the pair from a lot of places. MUCH better.

If its got a significant oil leak it'll idle dodgy too as its closed breather.

[peaktorque]

Order a new valley gasket and rubber rocker cover seals.

Take off the inlet manifold (about half an hours work) and have a good look at all that lies beneath

Rocker cover gaskets in the cork preference are not good, so change these as a matter of course. The valley gasket keeps water and oil at bay (there are small rubber seals at each end which seal the oily 'V' workings such as the cam shaft) so it's worth changing this as well.