Thread: oil leak

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Is that bolt installed? Just try it. I had a mystery oil leak that would dust my headers with oil while going up hill at highway speeds only. It would make a big cloud of smoke. I'd go home and see a film of oil around the front passenger side of the engine. I could only get it to leak at high speed and high loads. It was very difficult to trace it down. I started replacing things. I did the timing cover gasket and front seal 3 times, the oil pan gasket once, and the fuel pump gasket once, then the whole fuel pump. It would seem like it would stop leaking for a while, then it would start again. After about a year I found out about that bolt. I put it in and haven't lost a drop of oil since.

Tell me whether or not you have that bolt installed. You should be able to access it from the top.

The reason it might not have leaked earlier is because you had no ring blow-by. Now that the engine is wearing in a little, the rings will blow by some and create some crankcase pressure. That pressure will push oil down the fuel pump pushrod and out that bolt hole. This is why it has only showed up recently. Mine was leaking only under heavy load because that is when there is the most blow-by and the least manifold vacuum so the PCV system stops operating.