The story of my '92 Accord's life: oil leaks.

I've replaced the oil pan gasket (twice), valve cover gasket, upper and lower tube seals, oil cooler adapter o-ring, faulty oil filter gasket, etc.

This looks like a new one. It sprung up after my most recent replacement of the oil pan gasket and the upper & lower tube seals replacement (where the dealer also apparently changed the valve cover gasket for me (I did it and the upper tube seals once)

It appears to be leaking on to a ledge on the back, driver's side of the engine (F22A6) below the valve cover. Hopefully the attached photo helps give a visual of the area I'm talking about.
(Edit: The pics aren't the best, but its getting oil on that ledge below the intake plenum directly under the green wiring harness bracket in the pics. It runs all the way down and drips off the back of the oil pan)

Any guesses? I'm hoping its not the valve cover gasket that looks to be new since the lower tube seal replacement. It looks close enough to the head to be a head gasket, but I'm not getting coolant in my oil. I'm watching for that to happen, though, until I figure it all out.

Thanks again for your help H-T!

 

its gotta be the valve cover gasket. might have to use silicone on the edges there.

 

I'm going to check a little closer later today. If it is the valve cover gasket, I guess I'll call the dealer about whether they replaced that a month ago when they did the tube seals. The last I checked, there wasn't a trail of oil from the valve cover gasket, it was coming from somewhere lower.

I read in another thread about a cam seal and an oil diverter to keep the oil off the timing belt and I'm wondering where the oil would show up if that was the problem.

I've bathed the outside of the engine with foamy engine brite to clean up most of the old oil leaks so I can try to follow where this one is at.

 

I have the same oil leak in the same exact location.
Did you find out what was causing the problem?

 

Just a follow up for anyone else with this leak.
I found the culprit to be a faulty cam seal,
right behind the timing belt sprocket.
This was letting oil flow behind the rear timing cover plate and down to the rear of the head and pooling like in the pics.

 

That's precisely what mine ended up being. Dealer fixed it for $300, but within 36 hours, the Oil Pan started leaking.

As I said before, the story of this car's life has been oil leaks.

 

get that silicone stuff. its cheap and should always be applied on at least the corners of the valve cover gasket when replacing.

 

Where is your oil pan leak coming from?

 

quickster & SkRiBLaH: Thanks for the suggestion of the silicone stuff. I've got some blue goop (RTV?) that I normally use a little of when I'm doing a gasket to hold it in place and provide a little extra seal, but I'm not sure if its what you're talking about.

dglassmyer: It appears to be leaking from one or both of the following locations on the back of the oil pan. By the looks of it, I may have torqued the bolts down too much this time and squeezed the gasket out. The first time I replaced it, I didn't torque the rear seal end down well enough and it leaked there. Two of the bolts at that end were rather tricky to get at. This time, I was so focused on making sure everything was tight, that these two spots may have gotten a little tighter than they should have. Live and learn, I guess.

Does anyone have torque specs for the oil pan bolts? I couldn't find them in my repair manual.

 

see i usually dont like when other ppl work on my car unless im there watchin if i cant do it or i kno them really well lol..

do u make u clean it very well before u put new gasket on and the blue rtv is good i use that too.. and yes u could have torqued to much...

i can look up those torque specs on monday... u jus gotta email me or sumthin to remind me cuz i will forget lol i have the ability to find out... if not i can ask one of my instructors that worked at honda for years lol...

i go to UTI Houston...

email me to remind me on monday or sumthin and i gotchu lol
hijodelpremio@hotmail.com

 

Thanks SOHCaex!
I do most of the work on my car like oil changes, brakes, and tire rotations. I've even done the valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket (twice) myself. But when it comes to things like lower tube seals and camshaft oil seals, I'll take it to my local dealer (whom I've found very trustworthy, albeit a bit expensive) and let them do it and warranty it for a year. I enjoy being a backyard wrencher most of the time, but when it come to internal engine work, I'm not so excited to play.

As for the torque specs, if you wouldn't mind posting them up for others / future reference, that'd be great. However, I'll note that I sold the car on Friday and purchased a 2007 Civic EX Coupe on Saturday. The new owner is aware of the oil leak and I'll pass along any info here to him.

Thanks,
-joc1394

 

ahh sweet.. yea see i forgot lol... but yuh if i member i can look it up cuz i gotta look up some stuff for my moms truck.. ima put the notes on my iPhone.. cuz if i look at that ills ee those notes too lol.. lol but yuh nice upgrade!!

 

I am having the exact same thing happen on my 91' wagon. It starts where the ledge is and then drips down to the oil pan. Did you ever find out the problem, was it a VC gasket or a cam seal? I have brand new VC and cam seal gasket, I don't know how the VC gasket would be leaking unless its from the cam humps. I did use RTV but maybe it wasn't enough.
Anyways, what is the likely culprit here?

I know its an old thread but lemme get some pointers please.

 

Clean everything, pull the upper timing belt cover and start the engine. Where is the oil leaking from..............

 

my 92 accord has same leak any way torque for oil pan to block is 104in-lbs

 

Go here to see a follow up of this, I can't post it all again.

http://ericthecarguy.com/component/k...Itemid=0#35505

 

Yea, didn't know the story on the head gasket.