AZC4Guy

In order to track down oil leak I have removed all accessories from the front of the motor. The harmonic balancer is still on. Can I safely run the motor for a minute in order to locate oil leak?

CentralCoaster

Should be okay for a minute on a completely cold engine, assuming you have water in it and the waterpump on there and a plug sealed up over the lower port. That coolant will heat up real quick without any circulation.


Problem is, most oil leaks don't happen until the engine and oil is warm.

AZC4Guy

water pump is off! It goes right over timing chain cover which is the primary suspect.

AGENT 86

I would bet you could run it for 10 minutes and not worry.

Aggravated4life

Ive run cars without the belt to track down problems....you can run for a while and keep an eye on the temp gauge.
Removing acessories,same effect.It takes a while for a cold engine to get hot enough to cause any serious damage,but watch your gauges and shut down as needed to cool off.

CentralCoaster

With no coolant in the heads? Maybe in BC you could run it all winter long.

AZC4Guy

I need to run it for maybe a minute or two... the leak is significant and the area will be thoroughly devoid of old oil spillage... what do you guys think?



Thanks for helping me out here.


Steve

CentralCoaster

I would absolutely block off the water pump holes, pull the tstat and fill the motor up with water.


Maybe some really good tape would work, or just quickly cut some little block off plates from sheetmetal and rtv them on there.


Think about a pan sitting on the stove with water in it vs the one without. Now pour a few cups of gasoline on the fire to warm it all up.

cv67

I would absolutely block off the water pump holes, pull the tstat and fill the motor up with water.


Maybe a local plumbing supply has some rubber expansion plugs you could stick on the water pump holes,they are a few dollars a piece.
Fill the rest up with some coolant.

Forgot, one of the holes may be a bypass line that needs plugged too. THink its below the bottom w/o bolt hole, not positive on that one.

USAsOnlyWay

I haven't done it, but I have seen a motor run on an engine stand without any wp at all. Just leave holes open. Once the heads start getting hot you shut it off. 1-2 minutes probably won't put it over temp.

nutz4c4

Aluminum Heads and cast iron block? I think you would be ok to run it for a very short period but I would be very careful due to the expansion rates. What type of timing cover? It takes a bit of time to get oil in that area. I dealt with an oil leak on a friends boat with a small block with a bad timing cover,leaked on the top right quadrant and ran down the gasket area,followed the pan arch and dripped off. Looked like a bad pan gasket but wasn't. Replaced the cover and all was well. Just an idea as to what to watch for.

Ray Quayle

Why not pull the distributor and use a drill motor to run the oil pump? The tool is only a few bucks.

AGENT 86

That will only test the pressure side of a leak. What about splash and spin off from crank and timing chain at front seal and cover gasket.

94z07fx3

Well then use the starter to spin the engine for 10 seconds at a time with the FP fuse pulled and the coil wire off the distributor cap?

redrose

you can run it for months with two block off/ hose connector plates on the water pump inlets, supplied from a garden hose, and one discharge hose connector from the intake manifold outlet to drain, plus a ''box fan'' to blow air thru the engine compartment to keep exhaust manifolds reasonable...operating under ''no load'' conditions the engine produces less heat than you might expect....put your hand on the end of the cyl head to check occasionally.

you can make the (3) hose connector plates from 3/8'' alum yourself, just a flat plate with two bolt holes and a 1/2'' npt center hole for a nipple/ hose connector from homie depot

AZC4Guy

Thanks guys, for all the helpful replies!

I ended up running the motor 3 times, each time for about 10 seconds. I did this in quick succession. The only part of the entire car that was even warm were the headers, right at the head. I found the leak on the first try, just wanted to confirm.
The leak is at the point where the timing chain cover meets the oil pan. Anyone had a leak there before?

I think I can drop the oil pan and fix it from there, thus avoiding having to pull the harmonice balancer. So, I didn't need to pull the front of the motor off to fix the problem after all. It's ok though, I would not ahve been able to find the leak with everything in the way.

CentralCoaster

That's a common leak spot. A 1-pc pan gasket with some RTV in the corners will probably fix it, but I'd do the timing chain and cover also.

Pulling the balancer is easy, just borrow the tool from autozone. You may have to pull the rad fan for room, I don't remember. Use something over the threads on the puller to avoid damaging the PS line into the rack.

Turn the motor between TDC on 8/4 or 5/7 to get the crank counterweights out of the way to get the pan off.

AZC4Guy

CC, the only gasket brand my local shop had was Rol... any good?

It's a one piece, at least

Pete K

Nuthin wrong wth ROL