Pesky oil leak...

[thrown_hammer]

I finally got some time to crawl under the Targa and try to adress the oil leaks. I changed the oil, had a look at the sump screen, and replaced any "wet" gaskets on the bottom side. I also cleaned the oily crud off the bottom of the engine.

I fired it up and looked under the car while I waited for the oil to warm up. Looks like I am getting a drip at the front of the engine. It's dripping directly onto the cross over pipe. About one drip per second. Quite the smoke screen.

It also appears to be coming from up top and leaking down before dipping. What could be leaking up there, and how impossible will it be to stop without pulling the engine? I may pull some FI stuff off and see what I can see.

[T77911S]

sounds like maybe the thermostat, if you are lucky. if not, then rear seal or oil cooler/...seal hopefuly.

[Rot 911]

thermostat or the oil breather housing.

[azasadny]

The nice thing about Webers on these cars is you can easily see and get to the top of the engine and if you need to replace the thermostat or breather housing gaskets/seals, it would be very easy. With CIS, all of those components are buried under the airbox.

[PorschePilot]

Mine was doing the same thing, leaking from the top and running down along the front of the oil cooler.

I dropped the engine and replaced the gaskets on the breather and thermostat. But the real culprit was the pressure switch which I also replaced. It's a $6.96 part and is the cause of upper engine oil leaks 90% of the time.

[the]

Definately check out the oil pressure switch on the top of the engine.

It is made up of a plastic piece crimped inside a metal piece, and it starts to leak quite often.

Easy to swap out on an SC, no need to drop the engine or anything, just need to remove the air filter cover and the CIS boot.

[dweymer]

Been chasing the same leak:
Breather gasket
Double check breather hose for tears and clamp damage
Pressure switch
Crush ring for pressure switch adapter-not sure if yours has one
Thermo-oil ring

Is the airbox wet inside? If so it may be an overfull situation, although you've been around longer than me, so I am sure you know how to fill it

[thrown_hammer]

I will pull off as much as I can to see what I can.

[thrown_hammer]

Not gonna get to it from the top. Looks like it's time for my first engine drop. And I thought we would actually get to drive the car this year.

[Marco8]

Hey, before you do that engine drop, read some threads on this topic!!!! I had that problem w/ my 3.2 and the fix was 2 hrs and $12 (thermostat o-ring and pressure switch). I realize with a CIS engine it is harder to get to these items but from what I remember several people accessed these with a partial engine drop of a few inches. (do a search on thermostat o-ring and oil pressure switch).

Good luck and hope you can avoid the complete drop.

Marco

[thrown_hammer]

Marco,
I talked to some guys and looks like the partial drop might be the way to go.

[Marco8]

Shawn,

Great, a partial drop a whole lot easier then a complete drop. Good luck tracking those leaks down.

Marco