19stang66

So I have a few leaks I need to fix. I'll put the description on top of the pictures.

There is oil coming out of the valve cover baffle/breather cap thing where you put the oil in. The valve covers are from one of those cheap chrome dress up kits. I dont know how it's leaking from there but it's making a mess out of my new headers and plug wires.


There is also oil leaking out of the rear of my intake manifold onto a little area on the block. Bad gasket? Do I even have a gasket since that blue sealant is there?


Another oil leak seems to be coming from somewhere under my car, maybe the oil pan plug or somewhere around the oil pan. The plug and white o-ring seem to be in good shape though. Am I running too thin of oil? I use 10w-30.


It seems that coolant is leaking from one of my transmission cooler lines fittings on the radiator. I cant tell exactly where this one is coming from though.


Please give any advice on what I should check or replace to fix these. They're making a mess outta my garage floor![:@]

Rorin67

Those darn cheap dress-up kits are exactly that - cheap. The rubber grommet may be the likely culprit, so try replacing that first. If that doesn't work, get better valve covers, and ones with the metal flap directly below the grommet to prevent this very problem.

Your intake may or may not have a gasket where it's leaking. Some builders just use an enormous amount of RTV sealant, while others use both sealant and gasket. In either case, the only way to fix it is to remove the intake and seal it all up all over again.

The bottom leak could be anything. It looks pretty messy for it to be just your drain plug. Could be a leaking oil pan gasket, rear main seal, timing cover seal, etc. Clean it up alot then run the engine to try and better pin-point the problem area.

You know what to do about that coolant leak.

Oh yeah - and using a heavier weight oil won't solve any of your leak issues.

And as far as your garage floor, just get one of those large metal drip pans from any auto store until all of the above can be taken care of.

Cheers!

Soaring

Yeah +1 on the cheap chrome dress-up kits. In the meantime, if you have some wire mesh such as an old piece of screen wire, then wad that up and stuff it in the oil cap. Go get a large can of engine degreaser, then take your car to a high pressure car wash. Douse the heck out of underneath the engine, let it sit for a few minutes, then hit it with the high pressure water. That will clean up most of the oil underneath so you can inspect exactly where the oil leak is coming from. The same goes for your intake. Get it all cleaned up for a thorough inspection. No, 10W30 oil is not your problem. If it was, we would all be in trouble.

19stang66

I think I'll just get some nice aluminum valve covers. Just need some money! The intake manifold is really clean, so I know exactly where that oil is coming from. I guess i'll have to take the intake off and reseal it. What's better, lots of sealant and no gasket (what sealant should I use?) or just a gasket?

Oh and about that alarm Soaring, I painted it semi-gloss black and it looks much better now! I installed it too and it seems to work better now also. Thanks for that help too.

Soaring

Use a gasket, but put some RV Blue on the corners of that intake. Yeah, that cheap alarm works just fine so far. I didn't paint mine though. I want folks to know it is armed.

palerider

Just fixed intake leak on my edelbrock - go to their website and you'll find install instructions for Intake - get edelbrock gaskets for side of intakes - don't use front and rear gaskets use RTV - I always use Right Stuff - more expensive but never had a problem with it.