Oil leak?
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Pro
Joined: Aug 2008
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From: Duluth MN
Oil leak?
I have a 1999 Corvette coupe with about 37000 miles on it . It has an oil leak that needs to be fixed. I was just wondering if there was an oil leak that was common on an ls1. Thanks for any info!
Racer
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 257
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From: Shady Shores Texas
Oh come on...these cars aren't prone to leaking ...I've had multiple LS cars and none of them have had leaks. However, I have seen where low mile cars will leak from the front cover after being driven for a long period after years of not being driven very much. This is due to hardening of the gaskets. Do a search in the tech forum and you'll find lots of info. Good luck and enjoy your beautiful car.
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Oh come on...these cars aren't prone to leaking ...I've had multiple LS cars and none of them have had leaks. However, I have seen where low mile cars will leak from the front cover after being driven for a long period after years of not being driven very much. This is due to hardening of the gaskets. Do a search in the tech forum and you'll find lots of info. Good luck and enjoy your beautiful car.
Racer
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 257
Likes: 7
From: Shady Shores Texas
Not to the point where I would consider the LS to be a problematic oil leaker...like I said, I've has multiple LS cars and none of them have had leaks. High and low mileage, stock daily drivers and modded ones too. From 1997 to 2003 models.
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Joined: Nov 2019
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Well, if you do just a cursory search on this forum, you would see tons and tons of oil leak threads. Difficult to define the word “prone” in your post. Hard to argue against the fact that rear/front seals and oil sender aren’t “prone” aka “common” to leak on these cars. I’d be willing to bet that nearly every c5 owner has one of those leaking or it has leaked in the past. So if that’s the definition of “prone” then yes, ls engines are prone to leaking oil.
Last edited by Chillo32; Nov 16, 2019 at 03:28 PM.
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From: Jennings LA
LOL on not prone to leaking. Of course the prior owners only put about 3000 miles in 3 years they had it. Had a slight leak when I brought it home. Fixed the leak on the HP power steering hose 1st off. Cleaned engine to see where else it was leaking. Hmmmm front, back, valve covers all seeping. Finally after 2.5 years and 35,000 miles, it was getting worst . So to the shop it went. all seals, pulley, gaskets changed and engine cleaned. 300 miles since the job and still have a clean engine that just crossed 144,000 miles.
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They aren't your Grandfathers gaskets!! Most are sealed with high quality seals, and o-rings, or o-ring type material. They are mostly a black rubber (a type of viton?) material bonded to aluminum to prevent over compressing the rubber like material. They aren't the old school gasket materials, cork, etc. If you put an LS engine together, and it leaks, you've done something wrong on the install...
Last edited by grinder11; Oct 29, 2020 at 03:48 PM. Reason: Spell and more info to add
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Valve covers are one place I've never had a leak on an LS engine. Maybe the early perimeter valve covers (why GM EVER reverted to perimeter valve covers on the LS1, after finally going to center bolt covers on the traditional SBC, I'll never know) are prone to leaking, but my 3 LS engines (all center bolt) have all been non leakers as far as the valvecovers are concerned. But I've also never had any of them for 15-20 years and/or 100,000 miles, either....
