Flywheel Seal leak ???
 

Hi,
Sorry about the long post, but I need some help to locate my oil leak...

All along, I thought its the flywheel seal that is leaking as the bottom of my engine is wet after my top end rebuild last winter (didn't touch the bottom end).

Now that the flywheel is off, the area under the flywheel is dry. The flywheel is dry. And I noticed that most oils are on the passenger side of the engine. And around where the engine yolk mounts to the engine.

So, removed the engine oil cooler but its again dry. The only spot that has oil stain around there is the oil pressure switch "stack". Can it be the culprit to cause a fair amount of oil the soak the right side???

I was ready to change the flywheel seal but am now hessitant - why fix it if it ain't broke (& it doesn't seem to be the easiest seal to replace w/o inducing leak).

Any suggestions how to narrow it down???

thanks...

Yes the oil pressure switch can leak a considerabale amount of oil. Much easier fix than the flywheel seal! If you are unsure you can plug up all the oil lines with rubber plugs and then pressurize the case to about 10psi with an air compressor, then spray a soap solution on suspected leak locations.

right next to the oil light switch is the thermostat, which also leaks past it's o ring. pop it out and put a new style green o ring on it. the breather hose gets hard where it clamps to the breather, and the breather gasket can also leak. all these leaks run down either side of the oil cooler mounting area.

John,
I have replaced all the seals & gaskets that you mentioned except the the hose that connects the "breather" to the "hard pipe" so maybe I should do that?

Majic930 - 10 psi sounds liks a great idea but any suggestion as to how to do that? Where should I start injecting air & what do I need to plug?

thanks...

I went to the hardware store and bought a few various sized black rubber plugs to seal all the oil pipes that go in or out out of the engine including the top pipe out of the turbo scavenge tank, held them all in with electrical tape. In one of the plugs I drilled a 1/16 hole into which I could put the compressed air. Total cost was about $3 for the plugs. I found a good sized leak on the outer edge of the flywheel seal at the case parting line.

majic930 - thanks for the pointers... will try that.

Now another stupid question - can there really be that much oil at the bottom of the engine if I don't get a puddle of oil sitting beside the oil breather hose / oil pressure switch? I suppose I'll find out once I pressurized the system?

Isn't a Porsche SUpposed to leak oil?????

Jack - if it leaks a few drops every week, I'd probably let it go.

If it leaks under pressure only (in my case), its making a huge mess though the volume of oil loss is not that great. Gotta at least make it look decent though I'm no concur guy :)

BTW - I think I have found the problem to be the from the washers between the turbo oil supply line... both are crushed unevenly :(