That's nothing compared to how much oil I had in my exhaust ports from lifted seals. There was a stream of oil down the stem, onto the port, and going into the exhaust manifold.

 

^Good to know, thanks. I will probably be pulling my vc off next weekend to check and see if that's my issue...

 

I have the same leak in the same area. Did you ever figure out what the issue was? I'm stumped right now. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

well it's been 15k since I redid the head gasket and put that gasket maker around the oil drains. The leak is back. back of the block essentially has a light coat of oil on it. 15k miles and never seen a drop on the floor though. Quite frustrating, almost as if there is a block porosity issue or something.

At this point, i'm not going to do anything about it. I hate that mentality but since the car isn't loosing any oil on the dipstick and i don't have drops anywhere i'm just calling it rust preventative at this point :-/

 

Hey guys sorry for the delayed response; havent been on here in a while

Can't believe its been a few years since I started this thread. Unfortunately I don't have any updates other than I've been living with it and keeping a close eye on my oil level. My car now has 102k miles on her and continues to not let me down(knock on wood)

I spent way too much time trying to get to the bottom of this and I always failed.

Last year I was pushing coolant during an auto-x after recently switching to a BBK full so I ended up pulling the head and doing another HG. I swapped out my basic ARP's for the MAP H11 studs and Im no longer pushing coolant and figured that;s where my oil was coming from but it seems to still be doing it do IDK. I give up! So that's where I stand and I hate it but this oil leak is straight up kicking my a$$

 

I was getting an oil leak similar to this. The entire back of the block was covered in oil up to the head. Replaced the rear main, and resealed the rear main housing because it was showing signs of leakage. It seems to have gone away.

 

When I swapped my clutch earlier this year my rear main looked fine. This is unless Im a newb and the rear main is on the tbelt side not clutch side...but I think my oil loss is coming from the timing belt area granted I've pulled that apart and came up empty handed. Its gotta be coming from the oil pump/ case area but I have no clue.

This thing has destroyed me and its been ongoing and I just don't have the time to really rip her apart and play doctor. But I did buy a house a few months back and have been spending all my time working on that and my garage. The good news is that my 2 post lift has been purchased and I may be getting it up this weekend but we shall see. So now all I need to do is purchase a second vehicle and then I can have my car apart for extended periods of time. Im not sure how I've made it 8 years of evo ownership dd'ing and racing the car on the weekend. Oh yeah that's right I steal my brother's car and then scramble to get her running again, lol Good times but I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. End rant time to leave work for the day.

 

Rear main is under the clutch, like you thought.


If you think its coming from the pump case, there is the oil pump seal, front main seal, balance shaft seal, the gasket for the front case itself, and the OFH gasket/seal. Might as well replace the cam seals as well since the timing belt will be off.

 

Man a leak for 2 years..I would go crazy!

 

Thanks again for the feedback and now that you spelled it out for me Im realizing just how many seals and gaskets there are in there. I doubt its the OFH gasket or even the front case gasket; my thoughts are that its gotta be a seal vs gasket but maybe I'm off the mark with that thought. \

When I did my timing belt there was a good amount of sludge to be seen once I removed the lower timing cover and all up and around that area and on the crank trigger plate. But I really couldnt pinpoint the exact spot it was coming from since it was everywhere. Come to think of it, it would have been wise to just replace all those seals in the area. If I only saw it on the crank trigger plate I'd think front main seal but being all up and around there it easily could have been from the balance shaft or oil pump too.

But how is it getting all the way up the back of my block? I think youre right in that I need to pull back off my timing belt and replace all those seals, I have the parts anyway so its just a matter of finding time to rip it back apart. Its just crazy bc there was definately an oily sludge on the actual timing cover and around that area but my timing belt was clean. Id be more concerned if that thing was covered in oil but its not. And this is why Ive let it go on so long and just make sure to keep an eye on the oil level.

FWIW it seems to lose more oil the more Im beating on the car which can be attributed to the engine consuming some oil, sure however Ill find think like oil overspray on vacuum lines right after that so I think its moreso being pissed out when Im on it. So which seals would be more prone to leaking under higher engine load?

 

Oil can climb. My block on the firewall side was covered in oil. Resealing the oilpan and rear maiun housing fixed my issues. Oil has to climb upwards from both of those parts to soak the whole block. It all depends on which way the air flows back their.


If you have a crank pressure issue at high load, the rubber seals on rotating parts are more prone to leaking. Thin gaskets like the oil pump case to block gasket can handle a lot of pressure, it's already holding in the 100psi the oil pump makes, an extra few psi isn't going to budge it.


I have found my car uses less oil when driven hard. I find oil consumption to be highest when doing long distance freeway driving. Which makes sense, the engine is built around the high temps boost creates, which causes expansion. At low boost/cruising conditions, things aren't sealing quite as well, especially the rings.

 

Resealing my oil pan is something I've thought about but never gotten around to actually doing it. That would be pretty funny if it was something as dumb as that all along.

I had crankcase pressure in the past as I blew out my dipstick but I drilled my VC side vent to 5/8" and while I haven't logged my CC pressure since I'd imagine it's

 

This forum drives me crazy when I write a whole response and then half of it gets cut off!!! Arggg!!

All I was saying is that I should no longer have CC pressure issues.

A rubber seal leaking makes perfect sense vs a paper gasket especially with the introduction of ethanol.

And your comment about oil consumption cruising on the highway vs being beaten on perfectly aligns with my observation that Im losing more oil under high load situations.

Resealing the oil pan is probably a good simple project to cross off the list. Then I guess Ill pull the timing belt off and replace all those seals. This of course when I can find a free weekend...

 

Doing everything should only take you a day.

 

Agreed however I bought a house back in September so my free time has been spent getting the house and garage in order. Right now Im focused on getting my 2 post lift installed then finishing the wiring hanging lights and insulating the structure. Then I can get my tool chest and the rest of my tools over there run my air lines and do about a million other things, lol!

I swear this thing is a complete timesuck. I closed on a Friday then raced Saturday and Sunday and then that was the end of my season. I need to replace ball joints(thanks WL for sending me new ones!) rebuild my ACD pump, would love to relocate it, pull my Ohlins off and put back on my Bilsteins realign the car and throw on my snows...yes that's right its middle of December in MA and Im rocking my Zii's...you say only take me a day. Im way far behind lol