Hey guys,

I have a 1979 L82 Corvette and there is oil everywhere on the front side of my motor on the hood. There is a light film of oil that seems to be slung on up there and on my radiator hoses. There is a good amount of oil on the lower specifically not the upper there is oil on all the wiring down there there is oil on that fuel pump and then there is just a caking of oil all down there and it also is slowly dripping down onto the floor I put some stop leak in it hopefully just to solve the issue it did not now I am wondering what could this oil leak be from? I’ve seen that it could be from a little vent on the fuel pump or the front crankshaft seal. with the symptoms Is there anyway that you guys could point me in the direction of what I should probably do. I hope to get under it here soon and truly look at where it’s coming from. I also have a feeling because of how spread out the spotting is that my oil pan gasket might be going bad too. I’m not losing a ton of oil but there is oil all over my garage and she is sweating horsepower, so I want to get it done as soon as I can any help any recommendations and any ideas are all welcome here please help me out. I want to try and get this fixed. The symptoms are just a specifically lesson here oil on the lower radiator hose the inner side facing the police oil on the hood right above all of the police and belts oil on the wiring oil on the K member under the police and belts oil on the fuel pump , that is where I can see most of the oil and it seems to be dripping down. Any help is welcome.

thsnk you,

Air_Drewdy


so I was real tired when I posted this and noticed a ton of spelling and weird mistakes since I spoke to Siri so my bad for that LMAO

 

I'm really trying hard to understand what the police have to do with your engine.
None the less, with that part totally not understood by me.
I'll tell you what any professional mechanic would do.
Degrease and clean the entire engine bay.
Get everything clean and dry. Plenty of degreaser and brake cleaner where necessary.
Tell the police to leave if they don't have a warrant.
Start engine and observe. The first place you start to see oil should be a clue.
If it refuses to leak running it in the garage. Take it around the block and look again. Only go short distances so when it does start to leak you can pin point the location.

 

I bet its not 10w-30.
You blew a PS part,

Check the fluid level in the PS rez.

 

A remedial course in punctuation and spelling might be in order too.

 

I had something similar happen with an incorrect oil pan gasket. Doing what Vettes said will tell you everything but be careful of poking around with the motor running. Clean it, start it, let it idle fo r5 minutes, then shut it down. Look for the leak. Maybe jack the rear end up so you have more oil being slung forward in the oil pan. IF you dont see it then start it and run the RPM up to 2500 for a minute or two and shut it down and look again. Theres a few things that can leak oil on the front like that...the fuel pump, the bolt that is used to lock the fuel pump push rod in place, the timing chain cover, the crank seal on the front of the timing chain cover behind the damper...had that fail before,,big mess like yours and of course the oil pan gasket. If you didnt just replace any of the gaskets then I would concentrate on the bolt, the fuel pump and the crank seal behind the gasket...those are most likely to fail abruptly and be significant leaks. With it being slung upwards I would say the crank seal is the culprit as the other 2 most likely things would drain down and make a mess under the car.

 

Air dredy,

Your description of soaking wet parts from a lube appears to be everywhere. Even the bottom side of the hood.

The little vent in the fuel pump will not leak oil. Only gas. The fuel pump gaskets (2) have little oil pressure behind them.
Timing cover also has no oil pressure nor does the front crank seal, and the fuel pump pushrod bolt is a dribbler not a sprayer.
The oil pan gasket is not under pressure either.

You mention not losing a ton of oil. But yet something has sprayed everything down including the garage floor.
Your Rad hoses are wet as is the entire front of the engine, wiring, fan belts and fuel pump.

The key word here is "sprayed". As in under pressure.

 

Absolutely, it took me 10 minutes to read your thread.
Does your car have air conditioning? Not sure where things are on an a/c of your year, but maybe the compressor blew.

 

I'm with you guys. Something is spraying (and likely helped by the fan flinging it) and it's not engine oil. Power steering pump is a good starting place; auto trans cooler lines maybe; long-shot, but maybe A/C compressor oil...

Air_drewdy, you might try tasting a small bit on your finger. Engine oil tastes very much like petroleum — PS, trans fluid, and A/C oils don't. A pic of your engine may help us too if you have aftermarket components.

 

I agree with cleaning the engine prior to looking for the leak. This makes things much easier to see.

Start by making sure that the PCV is working. If it locks closed you could be pressurizing the entire engine. This happens on cars with Turbo's and Supercharged engines when the PCV goes bad. A Turbo charged Volvo we owned the PVC went bad and it then pressurized the whole engine until a Cam seal blew out causing a total oil loss as well as destroying the engine. If a small block built up internal pressure from excessive blow-by or whatever I would imagine the Valve cover gaskets being able to drip everywhere. That or the front Intake gasket has blown out which would spit oil. It would seem that the valve cover gaskets could allow leakage with minimal pressurization due to the poor design or just being looser than they should be.

On the small blocks (my L98 in a C4) I have owned I have seen Oil Pressure senders spraying oil, Valve Cover Gaskets leaking oil, The China wall gasket on the back of the intake manifold. I would also check the front gasket on the intake as well. My sending unit was a bad leak and it made a real mess. The PS system could leak under pressure but there is not a lot of fluid in that system. The auto transmission could have a leak but you would think you would/could see it. Is it possible that your radiator is leaking auto trans fluid out of the separate cooling loop that attaches to the radiator.

I would not use any kind of oil thickener, bump up the viscosity of the oil. After re-reading your post for the 10th time I think that your radiator should have the auto transmission loop pressure tested. Under pressure they could be squirting ATF all over the fan and thus the engine compartment. The auto transmission fluid fittings attach near the Hot Outlet of the radiator. The dissimilar metals could cause it to leak there in time.

What would happen if you had a bad oil filter and it did not allow the bypass to open when cold? Just thinking aloud....

 

The low hanging fruit is a power steering leak.

One of our Forum members had a longstanding issue with oil vapor escaping into his engine compartment, despite a PCV system.

After degreasing and drying the engine, please post a video of it running!

FWIW, here's an AI-derived summary:

 

good luck

 

Sounds like you may have the seal blew on your fuel pump from either too much blowby or a bad pcv setup. Ive had it happen. Sprayed oil all over my lower engine and it even came through the side vent and all over the side of my car as fine spray. I had 2 things wrong ive since corrected... I was idling super rich and my pcv valve simply put wasnt working which lead to excessive crankcase pressure.

 

Hey guys,

just wanted to say thank you all for responding and putting up with my terrible writing LOL. It was very late and i had siri listen to me and she did not seem to hear me well. Ive read all of your responses and id like to say that i may have miss worded what i am trying to say. Spraying was the wrong word it does not seem to be a very pressurized leak. It is a drip onto my garage floor. It could be power steering fluid but the oil looked very dark leading me to think otherwise. The problem areas are there is sludge built up on the underside of the hood above where the ac compressor would be(i dont have one) oil on the inside area of the lower radiator hose the side near the balencer, and then just a ton of sludge kinda all in a circle surrounding the front of the engine. Leading me to believe that something is leaking onto a belt and throwing it everywhere. But i also think i could have a leak in my oil pan. This is my current plan:

1. Clean
2. Check PS fluid
3. Run car
4. Look for leaks on balencer
5. Look for leaks on oil pan

does that sound like a good plan of attack? I also saw some comments about the PCV hose. If that is locked shut that would cause a huge amount of pressure inside the engine pushing oil out correct? How can i check if its locked shut?

thank yall,

Air_drewdy

 

Sounds like a good plan.

The PCV valve should rattle when you shake it. When the engine is idling, pull the valve out of the valve cover and put your finger over the bottom hole – you should feel vacuum from the carb. Another sign of a faulty PCV is that the inside of the air cleaner will have a coating of oil because it's pulling oil vapor from the engine instead of flowing the other way, providing fresh air to the crankcase for the PCV to suck out.

 

I'd suggest the following changes:

0. Post photos
1. Clean
2. Check PS fluid
3. Run car
4. Look for leaks on balancer
4. Take photos and video
5. Look for leaks on oil pan
5. Post photos, post video to YouTube

 

I don't know, I fix oil leaks all the time. Generally it involves replacing gaskets and seals.
Never once has making a video and posting it on YouTube repaired a oil leak.
Sometimes it's a cracked case and well, you name it I guess. But in all my years as a mechanic. Making video's has never been a repair method.
I'm fairly confident once he gets it all cleaned up. Runs it and finds the source of the leak. The repair will then be obvious.
But he could make a video. And show the oil coming out of a seal.

 

Sure! You'd do Step 1: Clean. Then you'd find the leak, and fix it. An no one would learn anything.

Hopefully the OP finds the problem, and addresses it. But documenting the problem, and the fix, provides value to the Forum, and to thousands of folks similar to the OP who work on their own car, and read this Forum, but perhaps don't participate.

Plus, by posting the photo here, folks like you can immediately identify the source of the leak, and save the OP a bunch of time vs. chasing down the wrong leads. That's the whole point of crowd sourcing to the Forum, to get a bunch of trained EYES on the problem.

 

Saw this one time....front timing cover seal behind the balancer was leaking a lot of oil while running and the air flow was coating the bottom of the pan/under car area.

Turns out the front main bearing cap bolts had backed off along with the cap and the bearing was spraying oil a bit more than usual inside the crankcase at the front seal. The crank was still tight against the top bearing shell as the crank does not bend. It was a wonder why the top bearing shell never spun. It ran fine that way, just leaked a lot.

 

Air....

Maybe you can clear up what car you are working on.....

Is this the 79 you got on 12/12/23 and were having trouble with the air cleaner? But
you were ok with doing side pipes and headers. Of course this was after your deal to trade your Camaro and Harley Hard tail fell through on the 81 that you had already told us you had in a previous thread on 12/4/23...

Or maybe this is the 78 you told us you just got four days later, 12/16, that's the one you wanted advice on which wheels to get.

Probably that 78, 1/16/24, you remember its the one you bought and put right in winter storage with all the paper work in it so you could not give us the VIN. You did post pics of it, an anniversary edition, looked good sitting on all that very green grass, must be special winter grass in Chicago.

But two weeks later 2/4/24 the car is out of storage and you have taken off the intake, distributor, carb and valve train to look at the lifters because of a tick. Got to hand it to ya, that's a lot of work for a 17 year old who has trouble with air cleaners, choke cables and oil leaks....

Oh wait...I'm wrong, it's probably the 79 you "Just Bought" two days later on 2/6/24, you move fast young man... I was a little surprised you needed advice on an oil change after just ripping the top end off your 78 a few day previous.

But maybe it is the 78 after all since you asked on 3/28/24 how to get more power out of it.
But since you were in the process of putting headers and side pipes on one of them on 4/1/24, I guess you might have inadvertently caused an oil leak when you removed the dip stick, I remember that thread!...

But you failed to mention which one of all these cars you are working on for a leak, to give you the proper advice I think we should know...

Thanks,
60

 

Huh, that's weird.