Rear Valve Cover leak?

[Zap]

Well... It's been a while since I've posted about the SHO's. We are STILL waiting on the shop to fix the '94, but that is another story.

The '95 is running awesome and the clutch is nearing 1000 miles (including highway, but still good). I haven't gotten close to the 500 miles of city driving yet to break it in, so no fast or thrilling runs out of it quite yet

However, it is *still* leaking oil.

It does seem to appear that the oil is leaking from the rear of the engine (from the one time I checked on a clear surface without having moved the car after it was shut off. What is also interesting is that my garage at school is somewhat sloped and there is a trail of oil down the garage. Obviously, this could be because of the slope, but I'm curious if the engine running at an angle would cause more oil to spill out.

What I'm suspecting is a rear valve cover leak (the valve cover gaskets are the last seal set that hasn't been changed on the engine. I think almost every single oil seal is new except for those.) I've done front and rear mains, oil pan, cam seals, rear carrier gasket so far. I'm also thinking that there is no reason to NOT check the shims while I am inside, so I will do that and flip/replace as necessary.

I am guessing it wouldn't hurt to change out the plugs while I'm in there. However, I would like to know if there is a good way to test the wires. The engine runs very smoothly and seems to accelerate decently, from what I can do since the clutch is still in break in. I don't really have enough cash to justify retiring the wires if they will still work properly at this point.

So, any advice is appreciated, and hopefully I can get this small issue resolved in the near future. Otherwise, the SHO has been extremely good to me as of late!

 

[autobahnsho]

If the spark plug wires aren't cracked and are passing current then they should be ok. You could test with a meter to see what kind of resistance they have in them, but I don't remember ever reading about this.

Have fun with the rest of it!

 

[sdpatt]

If the oil leak is sourced from the firewall side of the engine, you may want to inspect the oil level sender and oil pressure sensor. The level sender is in the rear face of the oil pan, a few inches above and to the passenger side of the oil plug. The pressure sensor is on the block, below the head on the number three cylinder (driver side). Both of these oil system penetrations can produce large leaks. The level sender at all times and the pressure sensor when the engine is running. If either is the source, replacment would be quite inexpensive.

 

[Bizzy]

if you end up finding a leak at the oil level sender, let me know I have a bag of extra gaskets for that. I ordered one, and the dealer gave me a bag of 5

 

[Zap]

Yanno.. I had a feeling it might also be the level sender. I actually inspected both the oil pressure and level senders when I did the clutch job about 1k ago. The pressure sender was dry as a bone (no leak marks or anything on the block). The level sender was fine too. However, in the process of trying to redo the oil pan seals during the rod bearing change, I did attempt to get the level sender out before I just cut and later spliced the wire going to it.

I will have to take a peek under the car sometime and see if there is leakage coming from either place. I am fairly certain it is coming from the firewall side.

On that note, I still have no clue how the oil level sender is removed from the pan... All I remember is that the ring around it was very rusty.

On a final note, I *know* that the valve covers weep a bit of oil, too. I'm not sure how to classify this leak, either (fast/slow). How much topping off is considered one or the other?

(On a very final note, LOL, how long does it take for air to purge out of the cooling system? It seems like I have lost a bit of coolant a few times now, and am probably just paranoid and it is purging air.)