tracing oil leak : front of engine

[Bukowski]

'87 944 na

persistent wet/oil in this area, below the distributor and at the front of the engine (see pic - hope people recognize this area). might be coolant as well, because the coolant hose there is leaky, but the pic shows oil (brown spot is really oil, the pic isn't great).

I figure the camshaft housing cover gasket needs to be replaced, but its rather new as is the resurfacing job. hard to really get a good view. any help appreciated!

[Gawernator]

Clean everything up and get a UV dye tracer kit

[mikepellegrini]

+1

There are a bunch of different companies that make UV tracer dye. I bought this for my fuel system leak: Tracerline Dye-Lite All-In-One Oil Based UV Dye-8Oz. : Amazon.com : Automotive

It works in both gas and oil systems.

The only problem I have with it is that diluted in the gas, the dye shows up as kinda brownish - rather than flourescent orange - and it makes it hard to differentiate from rust (which also kinda looks that color under UV light.).

I bought this light/glasses kit to go with it. Uview 413010 Battery Powered, 6 LED Leak Detection Light : Amazon.com : Automotive

If I was gonna buy more dye, I'd get some that was blue or green or some other un-natural color that was easier to differentiate. But what I had does work well.

[Bukowski]

Originally Posted by mikepellegrini

+1

There are a bunch of different companies that make UV tracer dye.

yeah, was thinking about doing this one day because I saw your thread back when. good call with the color differentiation..

soo.. I take it there's no little gasket above that can be changed like in the rear of the cam - basically the gasket under the cam housing cover?

[Gawernator]

+1 on green. My FLAPS sells a kit in neon green basically

[BTERRY1]

My vote is cam gasket as you called out. I had mine replaced and re-surfaced as well and started leaking again about a year later. checked the torque on the bolts and one was loose. leak fixed!!