First Time Fixing Common Oil Leaks

[rsiegel]

Hi y'all. Last week I dropped the engine (see post on "First Time Engine Drop") to address a fairly copius oil leak. I followed the "Fixing Common Oil Leaks" chapter in Wayne's 101 Projects book. I'd previously done a partial engine drop to change the oil sensor (undoing the mounts and reaching over the CIS), but it made no difference -- the car still leaked oil onto the exhaust. So out the engine came. I thought I'd jot some brief notes to help those who come after me.

Not knowing exactly where the problem was, I ordered the oil thermostat o-ring, the breather gasket, the breather hose, and the oil cooler seals. With the engine out, I could now see where these pieces went. The oil sensor is trivial to replace (I'd already changed it anyway), but I was surprised that the oil breather gasket and oil thermostat required some other components to be removed in order to get at them.

After undoing the two 10mm nuts holding the oil sensor down, it wouldn't budge. It turned out it was trapped by the plastic housing that ducts air onto the coil cooler. I wanted to change the oil cooler seals anyway, so I undid the four 10mm bolts holding the duct down. But I couldn't remove this duct because it was pinned by the thingie (that's a technical term) with the three metal hoses running around the right side of the engine. I undid the clamps holding the ends of the hoses, pulled out the hydra-like metal object, and then I could raise the oil thermostat. When I removed the o-ring on the thermostat, it broke into pieces, strongly indicating that this was the source of the leak. With the new o-ring on it, I had an anxious moment putting the oil thermostat back in, as it is not symmetrical, but you can visually determine how the oil flow lines up (plus, according to posts, it only goes in one way, and this seems to be the case).

The oil breather gasket was also a surprising pain. Several of the four 10mm nuts are not easy to reach. I removed the metal hoist ring that's bolted to the case to get a straighter shot at the nuts. I wound up removing the accelerator plate (I needed to change the bushings in it anyway) which gave me lots of clearance to get at the nuts in the back of the breather cover. When the nuts were off, I couldn't raise the cover because the sensor screwed into the top of the cover hit the underside of the CIS. I started to unscrew the sensor, and was baffled when it, too, hit the underside of the CIS. I bent over the electrical tab at the top of the sensor. This gave enough clearance to unscrew it. I then lifted up the cover and was surprised that it STILL hit the underside of the CIS before the holes cleared the studs. I took a couple of 1/2" ratchet extensions, made a nice long lever arm, and gently pried the CIS up (giving on the rubber boots on the intake). There was just enough clearance to slip the breather cover off the tops of the studs.

None of this is a bid deal, or difficult, but it told me that changing these items with the engine in the car, even when partially dropped, would be next to impossible. Even if you could, say, pull the oil thermostat, the idea of rooting around with your hands in an area that has both an accumulation of oil, dirt, and grit AND a gaping hole where the thermostat goes gives me the willies.

The oil cooler held no surprises; undo the shrouding that's in the way, undo the four 13mm nuts, and off it comes. Just remember that it's got oil in it even if the engine was drained. The three oil cooler seals are right there, easy to see, easy to replace.

More later as I get the engine back in...

--Rob

[Mike Kast]

Thanks for reporting Rob, It sounds ugly. Now I'm scared!