silver85horse

Hey guys. I have a 1985 Mustang GT with a bit of a problem.. I think. The underside of the car near the front of the engine and also the transmission is coated in oil. I just did an oil change and the old oil smells strongly of fuel. I put in Royal Purple 10W30 so we'll see if that starts leaking too. What do you think it could be?? My dad seems to think it might be the front or rear main seal. But why is there oil on the front of the engine too?? Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

mjr46

your best bet is to put it on a lift and clean it all down with a pressure washer and look for the leak after that or run it on stands and look for the oil running down or out

silver85horse

Yeah when I changed the oil I wiped the bottom of the car down and now I have left a piece of plywood underneath it to see if it is still leaking. I'll reply later on if it is

mjr46

GOOD!! possible sources common for leaks on 5.0 are valve covers, rear main seal and sometimes oil pan......also look at front seal, and back pf intake = cork gasket can leak over time too

silver85horse

Will do!

ryan_89_mustang

The way I found that works best for finding a valve cover leak is to romp on it and park and pop the hood with the car idling and look for smoke off the headers. You would also smell this if that were the problem.

silver85horse

It's definetly not the valve covers because the headers are clean and the whole top of the engine is clean. But now I think I have another problem. I took the car out today (its not insured, I just took it around the block) and when I got on it hard from a stop, the car almost stalled and then took off. Is that just the secondaries on the carb opening up or what? It seemed really weird, it almost like stalled and then just took off like a bat outta hell like 2 seconds later. I wonder if it just needs to be driven and quit fricking sitting in my driveway. The problem is I bought rims off the internet and the dick never sent them, if he did I would be on the road right now. It's just those kind of things that really **** a guy off you know what I mean?

PortStangly

Recently had intake manifold gaskets replaced. No more leaking. Initially, thought it was rear main seal or valve covers. There was oil on tranny and etc.

1985stang

That could be a lot of things. My car did the exact same thing when i got it, so i know exactly what you're talking about.
-First, with the engine off and the air cleaner off, hit the throttle a few times while looking down the carb. You should see fuel spray immediately, if not your accelerator pump is bad.
-Second, adjust your timing. This made a HUGE difference when i did it. Come to find out the timing was really off, so putting it back to where it was supposed to be helped tremendously. Along with this, change your cap and rotor if they're old.
-Third, check your vacuum secondary diaphram. Mine had a big tear in it, thus never opening the secondaries.
I did all of that when i had the same problem. It all helped, but if you're still having trouble you might want to look into a new holley. I eventually bought a new carburetor after determining my accelerator pump and secondaries were shot along with the fact that the stock 4180 carb is crap for tuning. I couldn't be happier with my decision, so let me know what you figure out.

Edit: Also, you could check your float levels. When you take out the sight plug, the fuel should be right at the bottom of the hole.

silver85horse

Alright thanks man I'll definetly check it out. Although I believe the secondaries are opening because the thing just goes and it probably would be running really rough if they didn't open at full throttle right? It could be the accelerator pump.... yeah I never thought of that. I guess I should mention too that there was fuel in the oil when I changed it, I just forgot to mention that, but my uncle says it is probably the mechanical fuel pump at the front of the engine, so I'll replace that. And is replacing the intake manifold gasket a difficult job, does anybody know? Thanks for your help guys!