Oil leak

[vatanen]

Just looking for a bit of help before I call in the professional. I changed the alternator belt, replaced the fuel lines and removed the cam covers for painting, which meant removing the fuel rail, injectors, and all the associated gubbins on the top and side of the engine and putting it all back together. Car started perfectly, and no apparent signs of oil or coolants leaks.

I then drove about 3km and I noticed some white smoke/steam coming from the bonnet. I pulled over, opened the bonnet but couldn't see the source of the steam/smoke and I thought I just had some spilled coolant in the engine bay that has hit the exhaust. The coolant temps were around 75 degrees when I stopped, and rose to 85 when the car was stopped with the engine on and then the fans kicked in. Oil pressure was at 4bar. With no apparent signs of anything wrong, I continued onwards. The water temperature went back to 75 once I started moving and all seemed ok. When I stopped at the next set of lights, the white steam started to come from the bonnet. At this point I began to get nervous, so I stopped the car for a while had some coffee etc, then as I was leaving to go home, I noticed a puddle of oil under the car. Marking the front wheel position and then moving the car, it seemed to come from the rear side of the engine on the driver's side. Looking into the limited space, the cam cover, which I had removed earlier, seems to be leaking a little because of the bad connection with the throttle cable assembly. But there is no apparent sign of a seepage which would cause the puddle that was left on the floor overnight.Of course, there might be oil left over on the side of the engine which dripped overnight onto the floor.

Is there anything else down the back of the engine which might leak? And for those of you who have removed your cam covers, what kind of sealant did you use to put you covers back on? Sorry to be so verbose in the description, but I was worried that my headgaskets might have been blown, but the car never felt like it was struggling, and behaved perfectly well temperature wise - should I be worried? The only downside to the journey was that I had to buy oil to get home and the smoke which was probably oil hitting the exhaust pipe behind the engine and evaporating caused me to panic a little due to the kids being in the back and the previous experience of smoke coming from the bonnet was an actual fire

I am not to worried now as I have had time to relax, and drink some beers! The car started perfectly fine again today, after one turn of the motor as I was trying to detect the leak. And my common sense is telling me it's just an oil leak.

Any and all input appreciated..

Thanks,

Lee

[Tanguero]

It does sound like it could be a leak from the cam cover to me. You need to use a proper oil proof gasket silicone like Loctite 5910 and make sure that you circle all the bolt holes with it too. The covers can be a bugger for leaking up a bolt stem, and bog standard bathroom sealant won't hold oil back for long.

[vatanen]

Thanks for the reply. I'll get some proper sealant tomorrow and try to get some bolts that screw all the way into the cam covers. There were a few missing and the threading seems a little hard to match.

[Tanguero]

The bolts are all M6 if I remember rightly. The thread may well be stripped in the top of the heads. I ended up helicoiling most of mine the first time I had the covers off.

[vatanen]

So, I called the expert in the end, we resealed the cam covers, and helicoiled the bolt holes, removed all the old sealant from the holes, polished the underside of cam cover for a better seal. I took it for a small drive today and all was well, no smoke, oil pressure at 5-6 bar from a cold start and then 4 when warm.



So tonight, I decided to go for a longer run, to the city and back to make sure. Everything was going great until the oil light came on. So I quickly pulled over and noticed more leaks. behind the car on the wet road. I filled it with more oil, just so I could get home. The light came on one more time, so more oil and then 2 more km home. When I pulled into my drive, more smoke/steam from the engine but upon looking at the front of the car, I really started to worry.



As I thought, it seemed the air pipes were full of oil and leaking down through the air filter onto the front of the car. The steam still seemed to be coming from the cam covers, this time at the side, above the exhaust pipe. Oil pressure was still at 5bar upon arriving home. It's really late now, but I can't help thinking I have put too much oil in the car, but why would the oil light have come on? I've never heard of a light coming on when there's too much oil and the leaking seems to have made sure there isn't too much in there. Starting to wonder what is going on in the engine now, there must be oil everywhere inside the intake piping and the butterflies. How bad is this?

Thanks for listening!

[pmessling]

How long did you wait before putting more oil in to the car. Did you check the oil level with the dip stick before putting more in?

[Tanguero]

Sounds like you have filled it to the point it is blowing oil out of the crank vent. As pmessling said, did you actually check the level before putting more and more in?

[vatanen]

I waited an hour or so as I had to go get the oil from the garage, then it did look like there was oil on the dipstick, but it was hard to tell in the light. The oil light scared me, I've developed a healthy sense of paranoia and I thought I'd rather have more oil in than none. Looks like there was far more than there should have been. The car seemed to work fine however even when I got to the drive. What would cause the light to come on? Too much oil? And is there any problem with oil being in the intake side, I guess I will have to clean it.

EDIT:

Been reading a lot about Cerberas and oil lights - could be my oil pressure switch since the oil pressure is fine. Looks like the paranoia of the previous leaks got to me and I just kept adding oil yesterday! To be fair, it was past 2am, raining a little and darkish, hard to see the oil level. I've cleaned the car up now and I will remove some oil, visit a garage and get the proper amount of oil put in. I will also order a new switch. Oil light brings instant panic.

Thanks for the help

Edited by vatanen on Monday 2nd July 16:41

[ridds]

Yep switches can go and if you have good pressure that varies with engine speed and is above 30 psi when warm then I wouldn't worry.

That does look like a classic case of over filling. You've filled it so much that the crank has whipped it all up, probably turning it to foam in the process that increases the volume further and makes the situation worse! It's then spewed up the timing cover and out the breather vent.

[vatanen]

Yep, I'm a bit of a idiot, but as said, as soon as oil light comes on, the fear grips immediately! And it was quite dark and rainy, so difficult to tell what the oil level actually was and with the leaks from the previous days, I thought it had run dry. Well, lesson learned - will empty it a bit and drive to a garage to get the proper level of oil put in! No idea what that should be, but I'm sure a google search will turn that up for me, or the online manuals. I am just happy the engine is still in one piece - After I destroyed my Skyline engine, I developed a huge paranoia for any noise that sounds out of the ordinary and try to get all over it before anything bad happens! I think I need to find a safe middle ground...

Thank you all once again