Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

hey guys like the title says. ive searched the valve cover and there are about a million threads on that heres my problem

the car does not leak a drop of oil on the ground. ive had it for 6 years. and ive never seen a wet spot on the ground or motor. HOWEVER it does burn oil. AND there is a ton of (i call it) blow out motor oil grime all over the motor/ transmission (well really all around the motor) its that thick gunk you can write your name in. it looks like i rhino lined my shit haha.

with that said what are my chances its a valve cover gasket and what are my chances it is a worn motor/pistons that just burn oil (i always thought it was the latter but all the oil blow out all over the motor make me wonder. when i crank the car it will smoke not terribly but more than normal exhaust for about a minute then its clear.)

could a leaky valve cover gasket cause this? any bad vc gasket i ever saw had wet oil all over the motor/leaking on the ground.

thanks

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

you should degrease all the oil off and just keep an eye on it to see where its coming from

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

probably wouldnt be a bad idea, but itd literally take forever. and this is my beater so cleaning it isnt high on my list of things to do. i would like to keep it in good running order so i have no problem replacing vc gaskets.

i mean it really could only be one of two things vc or worn internals. i guess what im really wondering is could a bad VC gasket give these signs and symptoms? burning oil but no oil on the ground?

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

If its smoking blue then its not the valve cover gasket, it will probably be the piston rings, or maybe valve stem seals.

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

From the sound of it you need valve stem seals replaced.

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

yup valves and the leak could be ur dizzy o ring mine did the same shit

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

yeah the only reason i crossed that off the list is because the oil is on both side of the motor. not just leaking onto the tranny.


as for valve stems does anyone have a write up or could direct me as to how to do this? (ill be searching in the meantime)

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

So you have oil all over EVERYTHING but don't want to clean it off so you can find out where/ if any is leaking fresh......but you want people to spend the time to write 100 guesses on all the seals on your engine? If you care about the leak/burn enough to ask everyone to help you with it at least have the energy to properly diagnos and do some work otherwise what everyone is going to say will be a guess.

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

Find a manual to download and read how to do it but if you cant be bothered to clean the engine I don't see that you are going to change the valve stem seals.
your best bet is take it to a mechanic to have it checked out and fixed.

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

dist shaft seal

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

i just put the engine in the car by myself so im pretty sure i dont need a mechanic. i have plenty of ability to learn this and do it on my own. im not asking people to troubleshoot my cars oil leak the title is a vague eye catcher. i already said AFTER posting the question of asking that my main question was:

"i guess what im really wondering is could a bad VC gasket give these signs and symptoms? burning oil but no oil on the ground"

"could a leaky valve cover gasket cause this? any bad vc gasket i ever saw had wet oil all over the motor/leaking on the ground."

i asked between the worn internals and the valve cover because i have narrowed it down between these two. something in the motor or the valve cover gaskets. im burning oil not leaking any wet oil. all the oil on the motor is dry caked on crud that could have been put there by the countless bad seals/valve cover gaskets that have gone bad in the 20 years the motor has ran in someone elses hands. i never said name all the places oil in a car can leak from and then tell me wheres mines coming from even though i have oil everywhere. although thats apparently what you read. thanks for the input in the valve stems guys i will look into that.

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

no idea why you even brought up the build up then. also, why are you obsessing over the vc gasket if you know it so well. I still say stick a mirror or hand under where the cap meets the dist and see if it is wet. the shaft seals can be replaced without buying a whole dist.

valve stems will smoke on cold start in the morning and when the intake is in vacuum. not necessarily at idle, more like running through a gear then leaving it in gear as you decel. high rpm = more oil spraying on the stem.

given the old build up and history the car wasn't taken car off and it is possible the control rings are glued together. no way to check it without a tear down. I would simply give a seafoam treatment a go and measure before/after.

valve seals can be checked with a simple poke of the seal with a pick. careful not to tear it, but just see if they are still flexible.


do some more checks, then we can tell you how to go about things if you need.

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

good question about the build up. i should have just left that part out. as for the motor its stock with 300k miles on it and 22 years old haha id say its been taken a decent amount of care and its had fresh oil changes every 3500 miles since in my car (6 years) also i DONT know the valve cover gasket well. (its been on there for the 6 years ive had it) how ever many leaky and bad ones that might have came before that will always be a mystery to me. and really no obsession with it aside the fact that i was curious if a VC could cause those symptoms since the ones ive always had blow out ended up physically leaking oil around the motor/ground. it sounds a lot like valve stems from the way you describe their symptoms. ive torn the top of of a motor before to re work the head/gasket but ive never went much further, so my mechanical skills are plenty to do the job, i just need to research how to do it. which i thank you for helping with. ill also check the dizzy seal and let you know.

Re: Help me diganose my oil leak/burn please
 

if it's not leaking on the ground, alot of the buildup can be from the exhaust. even as the car moves forward, there will be negative air pressure that will suck that exhaust back under the car. with so many miles, it's most likely the valve stem seals AND piston rings.
i'm in the middle of rebuilding a B16 because of oil consumption...