Tope side oil leak

[Coyote_Rage]

I have a leak somewhere on the topside of the motor. W-body.com mentioned something about an oil pump drive seal. I need to fix it since I am losing alot of oil (1/4-1/2 qt) every few days. I have no idea about working on this motor. I just bought it back in Sept and have done little to it besides a fuel pump and a battery. I am looking to fix it up for my daughter for her first car. Anyone know what I am about to get into?

[bve32k]

I was going to ask what engine. But seeing that you posted it under DOHC. I am replacing my o-ring this summer. It will probably be a all weekend job. Maybe a little longer. To get to the o-ring you have to tear the engine down to the heads. Might as well replace head gaskets while your at it. To get at the o-ring the rear head has to come off.

[bszopi]

I could have sworn we had a write-up for this... Anyway, do a search in the DOHC Maint area with the terms "O-RING" and "LEAKING" and you will come up with several threads discussing the problem and some ways to go about the procedure.

[Coyote_Rage]

Well I did some searching and found all sorts of info. I appreciate the help. Where can I find a good pic for the tab that is in the way? I want to make sure I completely understand this tab trimming thing before I do it.

[bve32k]

I have heard so many people say you can shave a little bit of that part of the head off, but I don't see how that is possible. I would think you would have to eliminate that hole period.

[93Oldsdroptop]

You can either go that route, pull the head to do it 'by the book' or do what I and many others have done. That is to grind a little vee in the head of the pump drive shaft so you can get it up about 1/4 inch. Then after cleaning the entire area thoroughly with Brakleen get a Chevy distributor gasket, slice it so it can be fished between the block and underside of shaft. Then liberally apply some Hi-temp RTV sealer on the gasket surfaces and fish it on there. Spin the pump drive so the RTV is equally distributed and then tighten the bitch back down. Allow minimum of 24 hours to dry and reassemble. If done correctly you will never see another drop of oil from this area again.

Much easier than pulling that head off.

Good luck!

[Coyote_Rage]

Thanks to the pics I now know what I am looking for. Hopefully here in a week or so I will be tackling that damn leak. Is there any particular brand of manifold gaskets to watch out for?

[Fierobsessed]

Cheater's fix...

Alright, there is another way around pulling the head and fixing the leak... I came up with this one when I was assembling my 3.4 DOHC. And I tested it on a friends 95 Monte.

First I started by removing the airbox, intake tube, MAF and IAT. Then remove the negative battery terminal. The driver side cooling fan and the crossover... Thats the demolition needed to get to the little bugger.

Clean the area with your favorite solvent, Carb spray or brake cleaner usually does wonders.

Remove the clamp with your trusty 13 mm wrench, ratcheting wrenches really kick ass for this application.

Get an O-ring... The one I got was found in the plumbing section of the local ACE hardware, it was a #45 whatever that means...

Slip the oring over the top of the oil pump drive assembly.

Pry the assembly up out of the block, and carefully slip the oring over the wide part of the assembly, then seat the assembly back into the block, and replace the retaining clamp.

Replace the crossover, the fan the battery terminal and the airbox, MAF and IAT.

Done.

The reason this works so well is that there is a taper on the inside of the block and when the clamp presses the assembly and the oring in, it seals it exactly the same way a hydraulic O-ring seals against thousands of psi of pressure, by capturing the Oring on 3 sides.

The pictures explain all, I had a spare oil pump drive assembly for a couple of those pictures.

[GTP091]

Fiero obsessed's methods is the one I went with when I had this problem. Unfortunately for me I did'nt know about this site so I had a hell of a time finding the leak in the first place. The one big important thing you need to do is clean the shit out of it. I used engine degreaser spray and finished it off with a can of brake clean to remove all traces of oil. Over time the O-ring will start to 'settle' and if theres any leftover oil in the sealed surfaces a new leak will form. You can get er' good by doubling up the o-ring with oil resistant RTV sealant as well and spin the plug as you lower it down to seat it.

[toms92gp]

I think mine is starting to leak a little, that or a vavle cover gasket or somthing on the the back side of the engine. I'm putting one of the lower and up intakes from the store on my gp so when i have my lower intake off i'll get it while its wide open, I'm not going to pull the head off though, just going to do the slipping the oring over it and rtv the hell out of it.

[Juglenaut]

Whoa remove a head to replace that o-ring... Aye you must like to rebuild an engine bve32k.

Fierobsessed has the right idea.

Almost every GM engine has D-Plug, even some other manufactures do as well and you guessed it most times when a engines leaks really bad it is from this port.

However technically when this D-ring fails a person should have the engine fully checked as other gaskets and seals may be the same. Interestingly it fails about the same time the head gaskets should be replaced and the main seals should be checked.