skidball

Ok,
I just gonna plead my case. 92 lt1 46,000 miles. When I first got the car, zero oil leaks under car. First oil change to synthetic to mobile one 5 -30. drip, drip, drip. I have been under the car for a week trying to find where it's coming from ? Changed valve cover gaskets, intake manifold gasket , silicone front and back on intake . Sat over night to set up. Oil sender unit looked ok. I really don't want to use a uv light and see the real horror. LOL ! Is it a sin to maybe use Castrol gtx conventional oil ? Who ever before me , must have used conventional or a heaver weight oil ?

Patsgarage

Start from scratch and clean off all the old oil with degreaser, then run it and see where the leak is coming from. I use conventional oil with absolutely no issues.

1800Wing

Sounds like you've covered the usual suspects pretty well...might be time for some "simple green" in a spray bottle...and the hose. I'd lay some newspapers under the pig after I put it on some stands. Let it sit overnight and start from scratch....I know this has got to be making you nuts.

later, tiny

FAUEE

No reason for synthetic oil to leak and conventional to not. I agree with the others, clean it all up and figure out the leak from there.

Fwiw, the lt1 was designed for synthetic oil.

haxxx

I have a small leak and I just deal with it. Mine is incredibly slow and I don't have to add to it within 5k miles, which is what I drive in a year. As long as it's not leaking a ton of oil I would just live with it. It doesn't hurt anything. I put cardboard under where it drips.

You probably didn't waste your time with the intake gasket though. The bolts loosen over time and will create a vacuum leak and eventually make a real mess. Is your leak covering the whole oil pan from front to back? There are a ton of things that can leak from the front of engine (which is what mine is doing). Anything from the front of the oil pan gasket, timing cover seals, opti seal.

Edv92c4

I have a small leak as well. From what people say on here it seems to be very common. It's will only be a drop or two over a span of a couple weeks to a couple months. My garage floor is sealed so I just wipe it up every time I move the car. The engine and undercarriage is very clean so I don't intend to do anything unless it becomes worse.

Edv92c4

The undercarriage of my 92

1993C4LT1

All LT1s leak

aklim

Yes, 3 "Hail Mary" chants, 2 "Our Father" chants and send me $2000 cash. From now on, use Mobil 1 that I sell you. My version is made by 72 virgins.

Some people use heavier weight oil to try hide engine noise, etc. Here is what I would do. Use a good degreaser and clean the entire engine. I wouldn't hit the electronics with a high pressure spray. I have cleaned off my engine and never had an electronics problem as long as I don't douse the connectors. Also my engine will be quickly warmed up to dry it off.

Find oil tracing dye and dump 2 or 3 times the recommended amount and drive for a bit and check with UV light.

c4cruiser

IRRC, there was a TSB issued for the '92 LT1 engine that pointed out an oil leak from the front cover. Thought I had a copy of that, but nowhere to be found. Could be from the gasket or crank seal. In any event, the TSB at that time only covered a relatively small number of '92 cars. One of our club members had a '92 that had that leak and the repair was covered at the local dealer.

Is there a website somewhere that lists both recalls and TSB's for the '92 LT1 engines?

RIPS

If it never leaked until you changed the oil, I would look first at the obvious. Although you didn't mention it and you may have already done it, I would suspect either the drain plug or the filter. As I'm sure you know, old gasket material sometimes doesn't all come off with the old filter and remaining pieces can cause the new one to leak. I don't know if your drain plug has/had a crush washer, but if so, was it replaced with a new one? Re-used ones can work for a while, but not indefinitely. Lastly, an over tightened drain plug or under tightened filter can leak. Of course you have to be careful about over tightening the filter, but I've found I sometimes have to go back and give it a little extra snug.
Another thing I do is place fresh cardboard (preferably white) under the car to identify where the drips are falling from. This doesn't always work since it can run down from a higher point, but it at least gives you a starting point for tracing it back.

zapc

been doing the old car thing for way longer than I care to admit, and do not want to open up the whole synthetic oil thing, but I will tell you for sure that synthetic works very well as a cleaner in an older motor that used conventional oil. you added synthetic and it removed just enough crud in your motor that was stopping a small leak either in a gasket or a seal. unfortunately even going back to conventional oil will not cure leak, you must find and repair leak, this is why you have always heard the old wives tail not to use synthetic in an older motor that never used it before. unfortunately its not an old wives tail.
old time mechanics used to throw a quart of tranny fluid in their older before an oil change for a 100 miles because it cleaned the motor the same way.

sorry doesnt help your problem, just hoping others wont do the same thing, love synthetic, just not on an older used motor.

BLUDICE

Mine doesn't - 96k on it. '94

antfarmer2

My 94 has not leaked yet. Do not get the opti wet. Did you check the oil filter?

aklim

I don't know about old timers. I do know that I have switched car oil from regular to synthetic. 50k 100k and 150k etc. If it leaks, it leaks. If it did not, it did not.

scrappy76

I want to post but then I dont.

Old School Power.

cv67

You can get dye you add to the oil ck it in the dark with some type of black light.

Long as oil isnt leaking BAD stopped chasing them alll
Its a chevy sooner or later they will

skidball

nice !

skidball

Hello,
This weekend I put the car up on jack stands and found a leak above the oil filter adapter. Took it off and found the gasket was gone , like there was nothing to write home about. Scraped off what was left , and by the way ( oh god if I could only see anymore ) lol. Re installed new gasket and o ring. also found the threaded nipple was loose. Fixed that. Putting a crush washer on drain plug. and gonna change the oil and see what happens.

Joe C

- recently switched from dino to syn on both my 85 and 90 -- 1000 and 4000 miles between the two, and all seems to be bone dry. aklim summed it up - if it leaks, it leaks, if not, not...

NEWSFLASH, it IS an old wives tail. crud doesn't seal anything - only gaskets seal. and quit using the term "old timers" - it's making some of us look like idiots -

BINGO, and we have a winner!

who would of thought?