Oil Leak

[Neil-yaj396]

I have an ever increasing leak at the front of my engine. The oil appears to be coming from behind the crankshaft pulley. I take it that there is a seal on the front of the crank. Is this obtainable and changable without taking out the engine???

Neil

[lanciamad]

Not had experience of this myself, luckily, but noticed this on cls, might be of use but it's a 8v Inte. it may differ...
http://www.lanciasport.com/forum/index.php?topic=2562.0

[HFStuart]

I take it that there is a seal on the front of the crank. Is this obtainable and changable without taking out the engine???

Neil

Yes to both.

Loosen the cambelt tensioner, mark the position of the belt on all pulleys with blobs of tipex. Undo the crank nut or bolt (NB bolts may have LH Thread - nuts are just FT) remove the V belt pulley, mark the position of the belt and slip off, pull off the timing belt pulley and you can get to the seal. Most of the work has to be done through the OS wheelarch with the splash gaurds removed. You could fit a new cambelt while you're doing it but it's not essential so long as you know how old the original is.

The leak could also be comming fron the seal on the auxiliary shaft but the crank is most likely.

Stuart

[Neil-yaj396]

Having had a good crawl under the car I'm now doubting that the leak comes from the crank. It seems to be more from the back of the engine.

My new prime suspect is the rear rocker cover gasket. I changed this in the summer having noticed a fairly small leak and the fact that this gasket was very heavily daubed in silicone sealant.

Having just removed the cover the new rubber gasket had a very heavy covering of oil, but didn't seam to be leaking down the back of the engine. I've replaced it with a new style gasket that includes a sealing bead (I think these are for a Delta/Thema engine but they seem to tighten down nicely).

I'll see how this goes, but any comments/experiences with oil leaks are welcome.

Neil

[WIL35]

The leaks I have had in that area have usually been from the camshaft carrier to cylinder head joint. Always a favourite because you get the smell of burnt oil as it leaks onto the exhaust manifold and it isn't that easy to change!

Mine needs doing at the moment, but I'm going to do it as part of a complete head rebuild. Have got a head set which even has the right gasket for the i.e. distributor mount!

[Neil-yaj396]

Since changing the camcover gasket the leak is better but not sorted. I suspect that the cam carrier gasket could also be faulty as I am getting the occasional burnt oil smell. Thanks, will investigate.

[Neil-yaj396]

Yes, I'm sure it's the cam carrier gasket, stuck my hand down the back of the engine (when cold!) and there's loads of oil just below the line of the carrier gasket. Oil was also getting into the first 2 spark plug recesses which I'd blamed on the cam cover gasket, but now seems to be more likely the inner side of the carrier gasket. Have ordered a head set off ebay. I guess the carrier gaskets are the same for all engine sizes?

[Neil-yaj396]

In the end it turned out to be the back cam carrier gasket and the crankshaft seal! Both fixed now. I ended up getting somone else to do it at a reasonable price. Just one word of warning; the gasket sets currently on sale on ebay circa £25 do not contain adequate cam carrier gaskets (about one step up from a cornflake box) with the steel re-inforced types being required. As noted above this is a kind of tricky job so it might as well be done properly.

Also I hadn't realised that a heavy oil leak can contaminate and damage the cam belt so this was changed as well.