Oil leak on 80, 3.0

[Talonz82]

Hello, I've been on the road now for a little over a month, car has exceeded all my expectations, (80 sc). I had several little bugs to work out and all went fine.

I still have a small oil leak, a few drops coming from some where run down just inside the valve cover on the right side and drip on the right side passenger heat exchanger, then on to the ground.

I only see a few drops after it has sat for two or more days, if I run it everyday nothing hits the floor.

It may seem too minor to bother with, but for the first 10 miles or so I have to smell burning oil as it burns off the heat exchanger, you can see minor smoke at idle till it burns off.

I did the valves and changed gaskets, it doesn't look like the valve cover gasket leaks to me. The oil cooler is a big no, I had it reworked and you can still eat off it, oil tubes, I cleaned everything back there and it stayed that way, it is coming somewhere from the head maybe?

Any ideas on how to track this down will help greatly

Peter

[1980SC]

Back it up on some ramps and start degreasing. I used some engine degreaser and my garden hose. Cleaned everything up nicely. After a drive I saw my oil leaks were from the joint where the heads mounts to the cylinder tops, on 4 of my 6 cylinders. I never would have located the leaks with the oily mess that was under there.

Rob
1980SC

[targa80]

You should do what 1980SC wrote but I would also add the following . Use baby /talcum powder and lightly dust the area you suspect is causing the leak. take it for a drive and then let it sit until you notice the drips. The powder will be washed away by the oil drip andshould lead you right to the leak. After you fix the leak you can just hose off the rest of the powder. I have used this technique on my own oil leak and it worked quite well. I had a dented collapseable oil tube on the left side that would drip right on to the heat exchanger.

[weber92037]

A good product is available from aircraft parts supply houses. It is a spray-on white powder for detecting hard-to-find oil leaks.

[Talonz82]

Thanks for the tips, I'm going to try the powder trick, I have the area very clean, I was also told to use a basic hair spray.

Now if it is leaking from where the cylinder meets the head, is this something that can be replaced with the motor in the car?

Or is a complete removal of the bank of heads/cylinders/valve components etc....required?

[911pcars]

Oil leaks on a Porsche are similar to roof leaks; their source is from somewhere above, seldom directly above. Offhand, from your symptoms, here are some likely sources of a leak, all repairable at relatively minor cost/labor:

Oil pressure sending unit
Oil thermostat (next to the above)
Cam housing oil supply line
Rocker arm shaft(s)

Here are some areas that are not so easy to accept (monetarily):

Cam housing-to-cylinder head joint
A physical crack (anywhere)

That's my best estimate this time of day; I may have left some areas out.

If there is a leak between the crankcase and the cylinder, the entire bank (cam housing, cylinder heads, cylinders) must be removed. This can be done in or out of the car. If this is the source for a leak of that size, I'd leave it alone until your engine needs some major surgery (unless you're very fussy).

Hope this helps,
Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars

[Early_S_Man]

Just out of curiosity ... what torque did you use for the valve cover nuts? Hopefully not the default value of 18 lb-ft for M8 fasteners! The torque specified in the spec book is 8 Nm or 5.8 lb-ft ... which is less than the spec for the M6 nuts on the sump plate!