2001 CRV Leaking oil down the driver's side of the oil pan. My #1 suspect is the crank seal. A close #2 suspect is the oil pan gasket.

Any other possible suspects in that general area?

The details:

I just rebuilt my engine. Everything looks, sounds, and feels awesome - except I gotta leak. During the build, I replaced the original front crank seal with a Fel Pro I picked up from O'Reilly's. It looked and felt flimsier than the original I pulled, but I put it in anyway cuz it was late and the good auto parts store I like (Cal Auto Supply in Pomona) was closed, so that is my number one suspect for the leak. But I would expect a leak from the crank seal to be spraying oil all over my engine via the spinning timing belt sprocket or drive belt pulley. But it just drips down about 1 drip every 2-3 sec when engine is running (no leaking when engine is off). I can't really feel the top of my oil pan because of the stupid effing timing belt cover (can I safely just trash that plastic piece of crap?)

I can see where the HG meets the block by looking down the timing belt with the valve cover off, and its clean, so the leak is definitely below the HG, but I obviously can't see behind the bottom crank sprocket where the crank seal is seated.

My other suspicion is the oil pan gasket. I have a small dent in it from years ago, but it did not leak. But I did have new pressures put on the oil pan from supporting the engine during the rebuild, and I also noticed a nut mysteriously missing.

I picked up a new crank seal and oil pan gasket and will replace both this weekend.

Any other place in that area might be the cause of the leak? Also, how bad is it to be driving locally with a leak like that? (After spending a week rebuilding the engine, I need groceries).

 

only when the car is running leads me to believe you might also wanna check your cam seals since when the engine is off no oil would be at the top where that sits

 

Possibly an oil pump as well

 

My crank seal leaked and i replaced it but my first process was to change the oil pan gasket since it is pretty painless to do and will cost a lot less and take up less time to complete and hopefully fixes the problem without removing the crank pulley and timing belt. I wasnt so lucky and ended up with a new oil pan gasket and crank seal when I was done.

The crank seal is easy to change once you get everything apart and can get to it