Another 2.0 TFSI S3 Oil Leak Thread...HELP

[nightSpirit]

Morning all,

I've got one of these fantastic engines in a Lotus Exige S2, only had the car a few months now and new to the engine.

The engine was forged around 4k ago and is running 400hp/450 lb/ft @ 1.7 bar.

The other week I noticed a smell of oil from the engine so took the undertray off to investigate and found a small pool of oil had collected to the back right of the sump (on the exhaust/cambelt side). The car has been in the garage for over a week now and they've replaced the sump seal as it looked like it was coming from there. This hasn't worked. They've also taken off the belt cover and it's saturated in oil so the next step is going to be stripping off the cambelt and checking the oil pump seal, crank seal and all other seals on the same side.

My question is, is there any weaknesses in this area or known culprits? I'm trying to limit my potential labour bill as much as possible and can only pray to the god of racing that the engine doesn't end up coming out.

Any help greatly appreciated!

[ManOpener]

I can't help with the oil leak, but I'd love to see a Reader's Rides thread on it!

[nightSpirit]

Good call that man. I sadly can't take the credit for the work as it was all done by Autograph Cars and the previous owner. It's pretty much complete, there's only a few bits and pieces to attend to and bit of consideration for aero as it has a desire to fly.

[SMB]

I've not heard of major seal issues but only suggestions i could give are
- PCV valves give issues, are you creating too much crankcase pressure?
- The turbo sits above where you say the oil is, loose feed pipe? or oil seal?

[nightSpirit]

Thanks,

Turbo housing and feeds look 'dry', could well be a pressure issue...do you know the operating perameters hot and cold? I have an oil pressure gauge and it 'looks' normal under all driving conditions, but I'm no expert.

Couple of shots for ManOpener: