Unknown Oil Leak

[reven565]

Lately i have notice a minor oil leak from my lower engine. Ive already thrown out the idea about valve cover seals leaking and the oil pan...But i do know it could be the main seal( i dont think it is).The only other thing i can think of would be the distributor plug. These engines were first made as a distributor engine but the assembly line didnt want to blue print a new engine when they could just plug it up right? Im pretty sure thats what it is but i wanted to know if anyone else has had this problem in the past or recently. Any feedback would be greatly appreiciated.Thank you.

[gpse3400]

If you can verify that the oil pump drive is leaking then do a search in the DOHC section about for to repair it. in fact....

http://60degreev6.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39785&page=2

basically you need to see if its comming down the engine bell housing, thats when you'll know. Of coarse removing the upper and lower intake manifold will give you acess to almost all of the upper engine.

[Schurkey]

i wanted to know if anyone else has had this problem in the past or recently.

Absolutely common as dirt. Also pretty ugly to fix "right" since you have to pull the rear head.

When it was me--the second time--I bought a Chevy distributor gasket, cut it so it would wrap around the oil pump drive plug, gooped it up with hard-setting Permatex, and slid it under the drive plug which will lift up about 1/8 inch. Be sure the gasket is butted up nicely where you split it so you don't create a channel for oil to spray out of.

Others have stretched an O-ring around the drive plug.

Either way "can" work.

Goop shoved under the drive plug--without a gasket--worked fine for me for about two months/500 miles. Goop WITH a gasket is going strong after two months and 4,500 miles. YMMV.

[deansharkgp]

I'm having this problem right now and it's driving me nuts. I've tried a few things that didn't work, most recently, I tried J B weld around the plug, it didn't work. I don't know if it's too hot or too much pressure. It is getting to be a PITA taking the intakes off every time. This weekend I'm gonna try stretching an o-ring around mine. Hopefully that will work b/c I'm going through about 2 quarts a week and my whole under carriage and rear bumper are covered with oil.

[pocket-rocket]

Undercoating

J/k man. I've done he Chevy 350 distributor gasket and black RTV and had it hold in the 91 for about 40k now.

[deansharkgp]

I got mine FIXED finally. I stretched an o-ring over the top of the dist plug, torqued it down and, so far, it's good. I had to scrape off all the J B weld that I had on it first. That stuff aint good with the heat.