whats happened here?

[PopsandBangs]

Noticed some oil around the front of my engine on the Cooper S today.

Below is a picture of the engine bay, then a (best i could do) close up of the front of the enginge block behind the turbo.

There's a small amount of oil present around where the head and block meet and some very slight staining and trickle downwards. Head gasket? Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers

[TheEnd]

That's the rocker cover gasket, the metal bit below is the top of the head.

You might just need a new gasket there.

[PopsandBangs]

the reason i had the bonnet open was to top the oil up, so that mess around the cap was me just now (!) saw the oil in question before i did anything, was already there.

[SystemParanoia]

TheEnd said:

That's the rocker cover gasket, the metal bit below is the top of the head.

You might just need a new gasket there.

this.. grab a beer and get tinkering, you'll have it sorted in less than 20 mins

[PopsandBangs]

if thats the case, thanks for your help chaps!!

[lexusboy]

Rocker cover and sump gaskets seem to be common as muck from my experience

[DVandrews]

There's no rockers under there... Spillage on fillup is the most common cause, if it is wet above the gasket line as well as below, that would confirm it. If it is only wet below then the cam cover gasket could be at fault or it could be that the cam cover bolts need a bit of a nip. Shouldn't take too long either way.

Dave