Tracking down an oil leak

[dptyrob]

Hey guys. We bought a 90 Loyale station wagon a few weeks ago and I'm contending with my first gremlin, one that I knew it had when I bought it. There is an oil leak somewhere on the engine. It seems to rear its ugly head when you're climbing a steep hill , and it appears to be on the driver's side of the engine. I crawled underneath it this evening and saw it dripping from (best I can tell) where the head meets the block. I'm inclined to think (and hoping I'm right) that it's coming from somewhere top side, though I can't tell from where. The only thing I can think of would be the o-ring around the distributor. Anyone else have any ideas? Any common maladies that might be suspect?

[Turbone]

Give the engine a bath and see if you can pin down the location better. Havent seen to many disty o-ring leaks, it might be the valve cover.

[GLCraig]

It could very likely be one of the o-rings between the head and the cam tower, then again it could be a cam seal.

[dptyrob]

I gave the engine a couple of baths over the last couple of weeks so that I could get a better idea. I got it pretty clean, and this is about as close as I've come. I truly don't think it's the valve cover. If it were the cam seal we'd probably be seeing it coming out from the timing cover, correct? I'll have to break out the shop manual and look up this cam tower thing. If that's what I'm looking at, am I looking at pulling the head to repair it?

[86subaru]

another common place is the front of the timming belt , , oil pump seals, crank seals, just my ..2$

[Snowman]

I've never seen a soob head gasket leak oil externally, but stranger things have happened. My money would be on the cam tower/cam case leaking where it joins the head. This is a really common place for leaks on the ea82, and a lot of times the repair is only temporary if it's not done right. It is quite possible that it is leaking out of here and running over by the HG before dripping. If the cam tower needs resealed, you don't have to pull the head, and it can be done in a day pretty easily.

[dptyrob]

I've never seen a soob head gasket leak oil externally, but stranger things have happened. My money would be on the cam tower/cam case leaking where it joins the head. This is a really common place for leaks on the ea82, and a lot of times the repair is only temporary if it's not done right. It is quite possible that it is leaking out of here and running over by the HG before dripping. If the cam tower needs resealed, you don't have to pull the head, and it can be done in a day pretty easily.

Thanks. That's comforting to hear. I apparently misplaced my shop manual a few nights ago and can't find it again yet. I'll look that up as quick as I can find it.

[Skip]

As an idle thought, have you changed the PCV

valve lately?

 

Reason? You maybe building excessive crank case pressure.

Thus blowing the oil out.

 

Word - you must use a genuine Subaru PCV valve.

 

Like for the thermostat, there have been many posts

saying the aftermarket parts do not work well

in these two places.

 

Just a thought. Hope this helps

[Dr. RX]

Since you don't have your manual handy, the cam tower is the thing that the cams are on, between the head and the valve/cam cover. I use a dye that I get from NAPA to trace down oil leaks, it is added to the oil and checked with a black light. NAPA also sells a neat black light that is about the size of a ball point pen, it works really great for checking oil leaks in hard to get at places.

[idosubaru]

if it only leaks going up a hill, idle it on a steep hill for a few minutes and keep an eye on it. or just let it idle flat for awhile and keep your eye out for leaks. gettings the revs up a little might help as well.

 

there's a reinforced o-ring between the cam tower and the head, this oil port can often leak. as can the cam tower seal and valve covers and valve grommets...just about anything on a car this old with who knows what kind of prior maintenance or lack of.

 

if you can't see where the leak is coming from, maybe it's not clean enough.

[dptyrob]

Skip: I changed the PCV valve last week. It was an aftermarket PCV valve. You should have seen it. The hose was almost completely obstructed by a glob of hardened, oily gunk. I cleared that out and installed the new PCV valve.

 

Dr. Rx: Thanks for the idea about the die. I didn't know they made something like that for your crank case oil, but I've got a black light and I'll give it a whirl.

 

 

grossgary: It's pretty darned clean. It's just one of those things where the oil is leaking one place and channeling its-self along the block where the block/head via surface tension to another point before dripping (I hope).

 

I'm thinking that cam tower is a pretty viable culprit. I was hoping that it would be the distributor o-ring, but I'm fairly certain that the leak is somewhere nearer the front of the engine. I think I'll give the die a whirl and if it turns out to be the cam tower I'll just have to take a day (once I get a day off, which I haven't had one now for 5 weeks) and just do that and timing belts and oil pump gasket. The kid I bought it from said he had oil seals put in it, and surely whoever did that put new timing belts on at that time, but I can't see going to all of that trouble and not putting new ones on.

[Snowman]

If you do end up resealing the cam tower, make sure you use a sealant like Permatex Anaerobic Gasket Maker or Permatex Ultra Gray. The factory service manual recommends a sealant that is almost impossible to find these days, but the ones that I mentioned are pretty much direct replacements. Many people use RTV silicone to do this, but that has some problems. First, RTV will not last as long without leaking as the anaerobic stuff. And, more importantly, RTV tends to form little globs inside the engine, which can break off in time and clog up oil passages and nasty things like that. The excess anaerobic sealant outside of the actual sealing face remains soft and oil soluble, so it simply washes away and doesn't clog anything up.

[dptyrob]

If you do end up resealing the cam tower, make sure you use a sealant like Permatex Anaerobic Gasket Maker or Permatex Ultra Gray. The factory service manual recommends a sealant that is almost impossible to find these days, but the ones that I mentioned are pretty much direct replacements. Many people use RTV silicone to do this, but that has some problems. First, RTV will not last as long without leaking as the anaerobic stuff. And, more importantly, RTV tends to form little globs inside the engine, which can break off in time and clog up oil passages and nasty things like that. The excess anaerobic sealant outside of the actual sealing face remains soft and oil soluble, so it simply washes away and doesn't clog anything up.

Will do.