SOOO MUCH SMOKE AND BURNING OIL!!! ahhh! help!

[CoreyJ]

Ok i have just about run out of ideas guys. I just bought my 94 lumina z34 and the previous owner said the timing belt had just been done but ever since that day oil has just been pouring out and burning on the exhaust manifold. so i thought it was the infamous o-ring leak. I went ahead and fixed the o ring leak with lots of RTV sealant and some J B WELD. but it turns out that WASN'T the problem... grrrr.

The oil is literaly pouring out a Quart every 5 miles and some burning on the rear head manifold.

so i know for a fact the oil is coming from somewhere on the pulleys side of the motor (passenger side) around the rear head or firewall side.

i wish i had a lift so i could get a better look because im not taking that intake manifold off again.

i have done some diag. to test for head gasket blown. and there is no oil or coolant in exhaust gas and the oil is not milky and the coolant is fine.

What do you guys think? Oil pump? Odd head leak? cam carrier?

Please respond i have only about a week or 2 to fix this oil leak.

[94GPGTP]

pics would help to see what you are seeing...

[55trucker]

Have you tried removing the plastic shroud access cover from the rear head to get a look into the area around the camshaft drive gears and the seals there?

[pocket-rocket]

I've had mine leak from the gasket between the cam carrier and the head before.

[CoreyJ]

Have you tried removing the plastic shroud access cover from the rear head to get a look into the area around the camshaft drive gears and the seals there?

Not yet.. but i will take a look tomorrow afternoon.

I've had mine leak from the gasket between the cam carrier and the head before.

Was there a stream of oil as mine is?

ill try to get some pics later.

[z34phoenix]

maybe that cover in the valley? the one that covers the dummy shaft thingy. lol

[CoreyJ]

maybe that cover in the valley? the one that covers the dummy shaft thingy. lol

that may be.. is this common to have leaks? man looks like ill have to take all that stuff off again. at least i can reuse the new gaskets in there

[OldSkoolGP]

If the timing belt was just done, I wouldn't be surprised if the guy that did it removed the rear cam carrier thinking he had to to loosen the rear cam cogs. Then he put the rear cam carrier back on, and either didn't use a new crush gasket between the cam carrier and the head, or he forgot to put one on altogether. I'd bet anything that's the source of your leak, which means replacing the cam carrier gasket, which also means you have to do the cam timing again. A good way to check is to remove your rear spark plugs and see if they're covered in oil.

[SuzukiGhostRider]

I was thinking the same thing as OldSkool. You either have a missing or re-used cam gasket. GL.

[pocket-rocket]

I wouldn't say a stream came from mine, but it did leak way more Mobil 1 then I cared to go through at the time. It was smoking a bit on shut down, but if I had to throw a number out there I would say it was a quart or two a week, and I didn't live that far from work. So at that point, I bought a head gasket set and Ben and I tore it down. Ben mentioned we weren't far from removing the heads at that point, so those came out and got touched up with a Dremel compliments of us for the next two days or so. BTW, Dremels suck for porting heads, lol.

[55trucker]

All in all.....a case of cleaning up someone else's mess?..That's depressing...Is it possible this is the reason why the previous owner let the car go?...

[CoreyJ]

All in all.....a case of cleaning up someone else's mess?..That's depressing...Is it possible this is the reason why the previous owner let the car go?...

im pretty sure your right.. the previous owner said she was just tired of putting money into it. but im not complaining too bad because i only paid $350 for it

[CoreyJ]

Ok guys im about to get rady to tackle this job of pulling the rear cam carrier off. i reached back there and felt where the head and cam carrier meet together and my fingers were covered in fresh oil as if there is no gasket there.

soo.. when im doin this job do i have to re-do the timing? or can i some how just mark the cam gears and the timing belt and then loosen the tensioner and slide the belt of then pull the cam carrier and install new gasket. then slide the belt back on and align with the marks tighten the tensioner back and reinstall bolts and call it a day?

[55trucker]

Well to make your timing the cams easier you really should have the cam lock down tools (2, one for each head) to *lock the cams into place after you bring #1 up to top dead (before you pull everything apart), without that tool you're really in a bad state. Trying to hold the cams by wrench or socket and get them in the right location to slip the timing belt back is nearly impossible to do.