Being new to this engine, could someone confirm my diagnosis of an oil leak? The leak is coming from the underside of the head gasket at the very rear of the left cylinder head. The picture shows a stream of oil running down the rounded protrusion in the block, which I would guess is an oil return galley? Everything above the level of the head gasket is dry as a bone.

[This message has been edited by rpro (edited 05-10-2007).]

That head looks familiar!

Maybe the cam carrier gaskets?

Anyone?

quote Everything above the level of the head gasket is dry as a bone.

Are you sure about that. I'd take that heat shield off the exhaust and have a closer look before I went any further, but if it is leaking then you are gonna hafta tear it down to find out.

[This message has been edited by ltlfrari (edited 05-10-2007).]

Yep, I'm sure. I layed under the car for 20 minutes and watched it continue to ooze out from under the lip of the head gasket. The top of the head gasket is dry, it's definitely coming out between the block surface and head gasket. (crap)

Try my flour idea just to be sure?

Spray it down with brake parts cleaner and let it dry, then throw flour on the engine, it should be very obvious then exactly where the oil starts coming from, Id get in a posistion to see the cam carrier gasket as well. I still dont think it would be likely to leak from there, but its starting to look bad.

Anyone with a spare head handy that can confirm those are oil passages? Mine are stuck away in storage.

Hard to tell from this but they look like oil passages:



An actual photo:

[This message has been edited by ltlfrari (edited 05-10-2007).]

Yes, the picture of the block confirms it all. Circled is the exact source of the leak. Thanks to all that have helped!

[This message has been edited by rpro (edited 05-10-2007).]

Thats just an oil drainback passage. No pressure. I wonder if you could have cleaned it up well and just siliconed it externally to keep the oil in so you wouldn't have had to tear the motor down...
Make sure you find some performance mods to do while the head is off and the motor is out ;-)

shame it wasn't the other head off, you could have replaced that dist block off o-ring seal. might want to do that anyway. if u have a 5 spd car i would go allout with an aluminum flywheel/clutch/pressure plate and/or port the heads