Mystery oil leak (1 Viewer)

[JeepinPete]

I am trying to find the location of an oil leak on the 1FZ. It is on the exhaust side of the engine, appears to be above the oil cooler cover, but maybe the fan in blowing the oil there.

I recently replaced the valve cover gasket, front crank seal, and oil pump cover seal. The engine was cleaned with a pressure washer after that work, so the oil that is showing up is new.

Far as I can tell, the only thing there is the head gasket itself. Anyone ever have a head gasket leak oil external to the engine?

 

[flintknapper]

I am trying to find the location of an oil leak on the 1FZ. It is on the exhaust side of the engine, appears to be above the oil cooler cover, but maybe the fan in blowing the oil there.

I recently replaced the valve cover gasket, front crank seal, and oil pump cover seal. The engine was cleaned with a pressure washer after that work, so the oil that is showing up is new.

Far as I can tell, the only thing there is the head gasket itself. Anyone ever have a head gasket leak oil external to the engine?

^^^^^
Yes, I've seen that before. But take a good look at the area toward the front of the Valve Cover. The 4 bolts up front go into blind holes and their length is such that they just barely compress the valve cover gasket before they bottom out.

Now, the valve cover itself has built in 'stops' that won't allow 'over' compression of the gasket, but I very carefully measured the length of the bolts and the depth of the four blind holes on mine and found that they are probably NOT compressing the gasket all the way in that area.

To remedy that, I put a small washer under the bolt heads to insure I was pulling the cover down to it's stops.

This might not be your issue....but something to look for.

 

[JeepinPete]

Interesting observation. I'll look more closely some time this weekend.

 

[BILT4ME]

I am trying to find the location of an oil leak on the 1FZ. It is on the exhaust side of the engine, appears to be above the oil cooler cover, but maybe the fan in blowing the oil there.

I recently replaced the valve cover gasket, front crank seal, and oil pump cover seal. The engine was cleaned with a pressure washer after that work, so the oil that is showing up is new.

Far as I can tell, the only thing there is the head gasket itself. Anyone ever have a head gasket leak oil external to the engine?

Also, is your PCV valve clean and operating properly? If so, then the engine SHOULD be under vacuum and the "leaks" should be drawing in air, unless you have too many vacuum leaks such as spark plug tube seals or a bad PCV. A bad intake hose can also make this show up. These will eventually make the engine neutral or under pressure, as there is too much incoming unmetered air to overcome the pressure generated by blow-by on the rings.

I noticed a wet area around my PCV valve and pulled it to check it and the ball inside was sticky. Cleaned the area, replaced the PCV, and the wetness has not returned.

 

[JeepinPete]

New PCV, hoses, spark plug tube seals, intake hose, PCV grommet. I had the top of the engine torn off during the shutdown, gave me something to do.

 

[BILT4ME]

New PCV, hoses, spark plug tube seals, intake hose, PCV grommet. I had the top of the engine torn off during the shutdown, gave me something to do.

There are a few guys with a casting of the head that seems to constantly weep oil through casting cracks. Search here for "casting cracks" and see what you get. I think they cleaned them well with brake cleaner and smeared JB weld over it to slow it down.

Not saying this is the case, just something to look for.