Ghostyman

The car is a 1991 Accord LX manual coupe with 225,000 miles on it... I'm trying to get it running perfectly.

I had oil in my spark plug wells so I replaced the valve cover gasket. Oil was leaking on the underside of my distributor so I replaced the distributor shaft O-ring. Now there's still oil leaking on the bottom of the distributor and onto the tranny!

Are there any other gaskets or seals I might have to replace? What could be causing this leak?

Here's a picture of my engine bay with the oil circled:

Ghostyman

Please someone help me out? I know there are only a limited number of places it could be leaking from... the trouble is I don't know what those places are.

Thanks for any input.

BLKFLSH

Is it still leaking into the sparkplug tubes?

accordredliner

Does your car smoke? If it does then ur rings r gone. If it doesn't then u might want to change the oring underneath the spark plug tube. The oil could leak into the spark plug tube and spill out into the engine bay.

brads94accord

just take everything back off and reseal it all w/ some RTV..even after i replaced my valvecover gasket i still had oil leak by the dizzy until i sealed it up w/ RTV

Ghostyman

Thanks for all the replies.

- The car does not smoke.

- I used blue RTV when I redid the valve cover gasket. At that time, I also removed the rocker assembly and replaced all the spark plug gaskets. They've stayed oil free.

What gaskets could cause oil to leak onto the bottom of the distributor besides the distributor shft o-ring?

BLKFLSH

are you sure the o-ring stayed in place when the dizzy was installed? That has to be where the oil is comming from.

CB7VTEC

iTrader: (3)

Have you looked inside the distributor for a leak?

Clean off all the oil that you can with parts wash/brake spray or whatever and and watch the leak manifest itself from its source.

Ghostyman

I'll re-check the dizzy shaft O-ring. I have to take the valve cover off anyway because...

I have to freakin' redo my valve adjustment! I ran Seafoam through right after I last adjusted them. I think the carbon deposits that were washed away caused the valves to be too loose (have too much clearance) so I'm getting a weird sound under the valve cover.

As for finding the leak... if it's not the dizzy o-ring, I'm stumped. After I replaced the shaft O-ring I cleaned that part of the engine and tranny with Simple Green. It stayed dry for a day or two but then I noticed that it had started leaking again.

Pretty much I've narrowed it down to the following possibilities (in order of probability):

- Distributor shaft O-ring

- Valve cover gasket

- Distributor itself?

Can anyone think of anything else that could be the cause?

JimBlake

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the heep &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can anyone think of anything else that could be the cause?
</TD></TR></TABLE>How about the last cam cap?

Sorta hard to see in this picture, but that last cam cap at the far end. The valve cover gasket goes over the top of that cap, so it can leak where the cap bolts down to the head. The oil leaks out thru the thin crack between the actual head & the cam cap. Smear a tiny bit of HondaBond or RTV on that surface. Be careful don't use too much.

subgeniusdude

Mines doing the same thing....replaced the distributor o-ring but it didnt help...the distributor is leaking internally,so you'll need a new or reman distributor unless you can find a seal/bearing kit for it.Replace your upper heater hose too!

Obsidian

Nobody stated a very obvious answer here. At least I didn't see it.

Head gasket. They can go anywhere they want to and it may have chose there.

BTW, mine leaked there and I replace my distributor (not a f'in dizzy) o-ring and was all better. You also shouldn't even need RTV with a rubber gasket on your valve cover. That is mainly for cork or paper(ish) gaskets. Although it shouldn't hurt either. But if you put too much it can mess you up.

subgeniusdude

Take off your distributor cap and see if theres oil inside...I bet there is,this should confirm my earlier post ,should take only a couple of minutes.Im just saying that from the sound of it,thats the most likely problem,followed by valve cover or head gasket.My dizzy is leaking internally,dripping from the bottom of the cap and onto the upper heater hose,which softens it and causes it to fail.

BLKFLSH

Hey idiot, the honda repair manual tells you to put the rtv sealant (hondabond is best) in that area.

CB7VTEC

iTrader: (3)

Guess I'm an idiot too for never using hondabond any of the valve cover gaskets I've changed, but I've also never had any leaks either.

If the gasket surface on the head and the groove all around the valve cover are absolutely clean with no old hondabond or chunks of old hard gasket and both have no damage, you will have no leaks (except for improper installation.)

BLKFLSH

Just going by the manual.

Ghostyman

Thanks to everyone... I'll get around to doing a valve adjustment in the next few days and I'll tear apart the dizzy and everything around there until I get the leak stopped. Hopefully I'll be able to tell what it was...

accordredliner

you'll find it. There are only a couple of locations where it could come from. Keep us up to date

Chiovnidca

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the heep &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks to everyone... I'll get around to doing a valve adjustment in the next few days and I'll tear apart the dizzy and everything around there until I get the leak stopped. Hopefully I'll be able to tell what it was...</TD></TR></TABLE>
Is there any oil on the inside of the distributor cap?

Ghostyman

I'm finally working on this again since I have a free afternoon and a 500 mile drive down to San Diego coming up tomorrow...

There IS oil in the distributor cap. Does that point back towards the dizzy O-ring?

Chiovnidca

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the heep &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

There IS oil in the distributor cap. Does that point back towards the dizzy O-ring?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Nope, unfortunately that means the distributor shaft seal is leaking. Time for a new distributor.

Ghostyman

New distributor? Oh well... that shouldn't be hard to replace.

I take it this isn't something where I can just replace a seal or gasket?

Chiovnidca

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the heep &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I take it this isn't something where I can just replace a seal or gasket?</TD></TR></TABLE>
It's difficult, and that's if you can find a source for the seal.

Ghostyman

Thank you very much for the replies.

It looks like I can get a new distributor with a cap and rotor for around $100 shipped so I think I'll just go that route.

Am I basically just going to be replacing the metal distributor housing? Is there anything more to it than unbolting the old dizzy and bolting the new one in? I took the dizzy off to change the O-ring and it was a piece of cake so I'm hoping that's pretty much all that's involved.

Thanks again, especially to subgeniusdude and Chiovnidca for figuring it out and helping me.

JimBlake

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the heep &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Am I basically just going to be replacing the metal distributor housing? Is there anything more to it than unbolting the old dizzy and bolting the new one in? I took the dizzy off to change the O-ring and it was a piece of cake so I'm hoping that's pretty much all that's involved.</TD></TR></TABLE>You're pretty much right. You can't buy a distributor housing without the sensors down in it's base. But you CAN buy one without a coil or ignitor. So you'll swap those over...