Christopher Power
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 28 Location: Hampshire, United Kingdom
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:29 pm Post subject: 3 litre oil leaks |
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I'm progressively trying to stop oil leaks on my 3 litre engine but one still defeats me. With the stainless water jacket plate on the near side of the engine (below the exhaust manifold) absolutely clean, after covering about 20 miles there is oil dribbling over it, quite uniformly along its whole length. The plate on the other side of the engine stays perfectly clean. I have replaced the cam cover gasket numerous times, used Hylomar blue etc, put new paper joints on the rev counter and dynamo drives, but still the oil appears. The strange thing is that I can't see any sign of oil above the manifold and water rail which seems to indicate that the oil is not coming from the cam cover, nor are the rev counter and dynamo drives getting oily - but every other potential source of oil is lower than the side plate and there's certainly not enough to suggest that its actually squirting upwards from somewhere. So where does it come from? Any ideas welcome. |
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Chris Card Guest
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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Check under the front of the block. The gasket is very narrow at this point and the oil can get blown up and along the top of the water jacket plate.
I have a constant problem in this area. Oil surges forward under braking, creaps out under the block joint, and makes a mess. The other possible point is, apart from the turret, the magneto joint.
Chris |
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Stephen Blakey

Joined: 02 Feb 1995 Posts: 1337 Location: Derbyshire, United Kingdom
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Steve Welton
Joined: 17 Oct 2013 Posts: 105
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2016 8:09 am Post subject: |
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Mine is similarly incontinent , and in other places too.
I just live with it and occasionally have a wipe around. |
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Christopher Power
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 28 Location: Hampshire, United Kingdom
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 10:33 am Post subject: 3 litre oil leaks |
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Many thanks Chris, Stephen and Steve for your thoughts on this. Very useful. In practice I don't think the actual quantity of oil leaking is very great - I hardly have to top up at all- but even a little makes a horrible mess! I suspect that Chris' diagnosis of the block gasket is correct, but it's going to have to get a lot worse before I lift the block. At least it's reassuring to know that others have this problem! Thanks again. |
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