Strange oil leak story

[Paul Woodbury]

For some time now I have had a oil leak on the front of the engine. I thought it was the front seal, oil cooler, the bracket for the oil filter, dipstick tube, etc., but I couldn't see it from the top or bottom. So with this weekend being three days, I dropped the engine. The fan housing and sheet metal was caked with oil/dirt/grime. I pulled the front of the fan housing off and oil was dripping off the inside surfaces. I removed the fan and found two of the four studs which hold the back half of the housing to the case were loose. The theaded hole for the top right stud extends into the oil filler neck. When the stud backed out it allowed pressured oil to be blown pass the stud into the cooling fan. The cooling fan then blow it everywhere. The bottom right stud had backed out to the point of coming into contact with the fan. Since it couldn't back all the way out, it wobbled around and stripped out the threads of the case. So the lesson learned is during your next rebuild remove these studs and Loctite them into the case.