z28ss4me

iTrader: (2)

Ok, so the cam swap went great last weekend. I buttoned everything back up and after a tday of driving I noticed the car was leaking oil. So I went back around the bolts and tightened them up as much as possible and threw in som stop leak. So far neither has worked just yet, I'm hoping I get some more miles on the stop leak and that will fix it, but I'm not terribly confiident.

So, if the stop leak doesn't work, what do I do next?

Raise

iTrader: (31)

have u checked underneath to see if theres any oil around any of the main areas (oil pan, crank seal, oil filter, etc) ?? id check the two bolts that go horizontally into the back of the oil pan through the transmission. a lot of people miss those when they are tightening everything back up. they remember all the 10mm bolts, but they forget about those two. thats the first place i would check.

delsold

iTrader: (7)

i dont think i would have used stop leak! thats like adding cholestarol into your blood stream. Sure it'll thick'n it up....but its not really the right approach.


i would try to figure out where the leak is coming from (pan, front seal, timing cover gasket, etc) and take off that part, clean it really good and try a new gasket. If it the front cover or something you could always use a small amount of high temp rtv too to help the gasket seal.

JPH

iTrader: (2)

i'm about 95% sure, it's the seal around the harmonic balancer. did you reuse the old one, or buy a new one?

Krab

iTrader: (28)

Where exactly is the leak coming from? It would be much easier to give advice if we knew the source of the leak.

z28ss4me

iTrader: (2)

It's definately around the pan. The crank seal is new and holding strong, I'm just hoping to avoid having to replace the pan gasket.

ProjecT 9

iTrader: (6)

around the oil pan, you can drop the pan some and put some high temp RTV around the perimeter. be sure to put some RTV on the bottom of the timing cover too.

Krab

iTrader: (28)

Did you make sure to align the pan? You do so by threading in a few of the 10mm bolts hand tight, torque down the two 13mm bolts that run through the bellhousing (this aligns your pan to the back of the block), then torque down the rest of the bolts.

I've used this method numerous times (~10) and haven't had an oil pan leak. No RTV needed.

z28ss4me

iTrader: (2)

No, but honestly I never actually loosened the two 13mm bolts. I guess that explains why I couldn't get the pan to drop. I was able to pry the front of the pan down just enough to get the bolt off of the pickup tube. You think I should unbolt the pan and reattach it again to try and line it up better?

shooter

iTrader: (2)

Don't feel bad I did the same thing and wanted to kick my own ***. I did find the two 13mm bolt and got it dropped. I put some high temp sealant were I pried it down. No leaks so far. I'd drop your pan down, clean it with some rubbing alcohol then put a small line of high temp sealant around the gasket.

Good luck!

01redws6ta

Hopefully you didn't scratch or crack anything by prying on the oil pan...

blk00ss

iTrader: (66)

I would put money on it that you cracked the oil pan or somthing by prying on it like that. Not a very good way to go about doing things.