Nikita Davis

Little history: I have a 96 honda civic ex, broke the timing belt so I got a motor from a junkyard to put in it until I can rebuild the original motor. Motor was put in and started up just fine. I drove it 20 mins down the road and there is oil leaking that SEEMS to be leaking between the block and the head around the distributor & front/back corner of the motor.
Its a new distributor with new oring so I dont think its coming from that.
Next day: drove it 20 mins to work, stuck in traffic for 45 mins home and have oil leaking from the back passenger side of the engine, enough to cover the trans. Too
The oil leak is lower than the intake and exhaust manifolds.

My main question is: is it possible that the head gasket is leaking enough oil that the transmission and that side (front & back) of the engine are covered but not be loosing coolant,overheating or have milky oil?

mk378

Most of the head gasket doesn't touch oil, it is sealing against coolant. Oil under pressure comes up through one place in the back, directly above the oil filter. Oil returns to the pan through two holes in the front corners.

Is the oil coming from around the VTEC solenoid? There is oil under pressure there and it can leak badly.

Nikita Davis

Thats what I was thinking about the head gasket and seemed odd that it could be a head gasket with no issues with the coolant but was told by many pople thats the only thing it could be lol
But there is definitely oil under the VTEC solenoid. Ill start by ordering that gasket first.
Ill keep you posted thank you!

Former User

There's an oil seal inside the distributor that can also leak, but an oil leak from either of the two VTEC solenoid gaskets is common and annoying.

Mecca8383

I would remove the Distributor to see exactly where the oil is coming from below the distributor. While you're at it check that oil seal on the dizzy just like Ron said, make sure the seal didn't get installed wrong and smashed...you won't know till you check.

Nikita Davis

I replaced the gaskets on the vtec solenoid and it didn't fix the leak.
I had to replace the heater hose this weekend that was under the dizzy so i went ahead and took it off and I honestly cannot tell where it could be coming from. The dizzy is the one i had on my other engine before i replaced it and its only about 3 months old so i dont see that oring being bad unless the dizzys are different for my old y8 vs my new y8 and its just not making a complete seal. Ill check into that after work today.

chrysler kid

Valve cover gasket?

Former User

Did you seal the new gaskets with HondaBond? In my experience, this is a must for the VTEC solenoid gaskets.

slomofo

iTrader: (1)

Get rid of the distributor and install a coil on plug system.

Drive around.

Does it still leak oil? If so, then the distributor is not the problem. If not, then change distributor seals and put it back together.

Nikita Davis

Solved finally!!
Ok so I finally fixed the leak like a week ago and wanted to post an update for those that helped me.
I did the valve cover gasket and went ahead and did the distributor oring one weekend and it still leaked so at this point I had replace every gasket on that end so I got my old vtec solenoid from the motor i had just pulled and put it on (with the new gasket) and it solved the issue. I looked the old one over and over and couldnt come to a conclusion as to why it continued to leak with the new gasket but for some reason it did.