Strange oil leak

[rejeep]

Without getting into too much detail.. (I want fresh and unbias)...

I had my 258 rebuilt..

 

engine ran like a champe except for some smoke out the tail pipe and a mysterious oil leak coming from the manifolds closest to the firewall...

 

The engine was torn down.. no head gasket issue, no ring issue.. vlave cover wasnt leaking and it wasnt the RMS.. the oil was coming from the manifold aread of the engine..

 

I have been fighting this for over 6 months... before i go built the engine back up again any thoughts as to where this is coming from?

 

The engine was fully machined, no warpage or cracks..

[FxRacing282]

did you forget to silicone the bolts for the intake?? i know on chevy you have to in order to stop the oil from coming up.

[KillerCOM]

did you have any valve work done with the rebuild?

[mvusse]

A fresh rebuilt will burn oil for the first few hundred miles until everything is seated properly. That will cause smoke out the tail pipe. The manifold area leak I can't help with.

[pingpong]

Before I really started doing all my own work.. I had a shop do a bottom end kit on Pong. Well to make a long story short.. they didnt install a distributor gasket :no: and we chased an oil leak for months trying to find it.

[Geonovast]

Did you check the torque on the head bolts before you removed the head? They may have simply been not torqued down enough in the back and that could cause the head to not sit flat.

[rejeep]

engine ran like a champ, 175 compression across the board..

 

the whole head was rebuilt.. all valve work was done.. why what do you think..?

 

and only the front head bolt calls for sealant b/c it hits a coolant passage..

or am I wrong on this one.. but either way there are no oil passages on that side of the engine block.

[KillerCOM]

is the oil coming out of the exhaust port?

[rejeep]

can't tell.. it pools on the manifold flange

[FxRacing282]

did you use a cork valve cover gasket? cause thats what i use and they leak like you wouldnt believe.

[KillerCOM]

if its coming out of the port it could be a bad or improperly installed valve seal or guide. if its on top of the mani it sound like a valve cover. i'll be driving through rochester hopefully a couple times on my way to syracuse this winter. :cheers:

 

the cork gaskets are too old school to be reliable in my eyes

[rejeep]

its one of thoes cast alum valve cover that come with the thicker cork gasket..

it deff wasnt the valve cover ....

 

but valve issues... now were thinking..

infact one of the valves was really dirty compared to the rest...

[knightrider]

Before I really started doing all my own work.. I had a shop do a bottom end kit on Pong. Well to make a long story short.. they didnt install a distributor gasket :no: and we chased an oil leak for months trying to find it.

 

I have been doing the SAME thing.....come to find out the distributor gasket is gone. Haven't replaced it yet, but for $1.50 it's cheap insurance and easy to do.

Glad someone else had this same issue. :nuts:

[KillerCOM]

I go to the University of Northwestern Ohio and I've had engine machining before and go do personal work in the school's machine shop. It sounds like a bad valve seal. If you take the manifold off and there's a bunch of oil on the valve that's what it is, or take of the valve cover and look at the one you suspect is leaking.