Thread: Massive Oil Leak

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for some reason I have a massive oil leak somewhere @ the back of the motor. It appears to be on the right top area and only leaks while the engine is running. it's not from the valve covers, heads and I am trying to avoid tearing the entire motor down. the engine runs poor like it only running on 7 cly. but doesn't smoke. where could this oil be coming from? please help I am at my wits end!

Well you didn't say what kind of engine 6 8 4 cyl??? I'll take a stab at it if its a SBC your O/P sending unit is probably the cause. Its located to the right of the distributor ( driver side) at the back of the engine.

That would be my guess. There is a tapped hole there that faces straight up, right behind the Intake manifold. One time someone forgot to hook up the line to the guage, :-) before they tried to turn the motor over.

You know I hate to admit this but , one time(and only one time) after rebuilding an engine I was priming the oil pump and getting oil to the rockers.When I sudenly noticed I had an oil well going off by the time I let go of the triger on the drill I had oil every where ceiling floor and ME. The gauge was sitting on the bench.

"......had oil every where ceiling floor and ME....."


My goof up was on a BBC, went to prime it without a plug in the hole that comes off the oil filter boss. Guess where I was standing?????

thanks for all your input but i checked the OP sending unit and that's not it. this is a 350 and the oil appears to be coming from the pass.side at the back of the block. oil is all over the fire wall and drips onto the pass.side manifold. its not the valve covers.

Didn't leave the plugs out of the oil galleys at the rear of the block by chance? Should have three of them arranged around the end of the cam. You would have oil coming from the inpection cover area at the torque convertor or clutch depending on the trans you have. Or the tin plug for the cam itself can be leaking or not there.

It could also be dist gasket or intake leaking in the rear.

It appears that the oil is coming at the distributer shaft from where it meets @ the intake. is that possible?? keep in mind this just developed and the engine has been sitting for 10 years. ther is one thing after another on this...

There is a gasket under the distributor but if its coming out that bad I'd think you have a lot of crank case presure. Do you have a pcv? do you get oil out the oil filler??

thanks for everyones help, I have given up on this motor and will replace it.

pull the intake manifold before you swap the motor.

Hey dont give up just yet. Ill take that motor if you dont want it Seriously though, I would definately check the distrubutor gasket and replace if its dried out, also check intake manifold seal at rear of motor...had mine leak once, you may have to pull the manifold and replace manifold gaskets and use a nice bead copper rtv between block and manifold. A little elbow grease and patience will help you find the problem, unfortunately sometimes you have to do a little dissasembly/reassembly work. But thats the fun part, right?

Thanks for the encouragment, I will start some disssembly before i give up. am sure 'll be back with some questions!!

Just a tip.
Before pulling the distributor turn the engine over so the rotor in pointing to the firewall and mark the spot with somthing. Then when you go back you'll stand a chance of getting it right the first time.