3 litre oil leaks

Christopher Power · Post by **Christopher Power** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:29 pm

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.

Chris Card · Post by **Chris Card** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:19 pm

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

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:03 pm

The motor industry uses fluorescent oil additives to check for leaks. You can do the same thing at home e.g;

http://www.amazon.com/Tracer-Products-T ... B000JFHNTM

I'm sure you could find a UK source with a bit of clicking.

You'll need a UV lamp, of course. Might be a bit tricky trying to get the engine over a sun-bed?

Steve Welton · Post by **Steve Welton** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 8:09 am

Mine is similarly incontinent , and in other places too.
I just live with it and occasionally have a wipe around.

Christopher Power · Post by **Christopher Power** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 10:33 am

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.