Trying to figure out an oil leak here. While trying to track down a suspension noise tonight I noticed a small puddle of oil under the car (it had only been parked for 15 minutes or so. Taking a look at it I had oil all over the he bottom of my oil pan, as well as on my down pipe and at the bottom of my header.

With that much much oil everywhere I’m wondering if my oil pan gasket is bad or if there is somewhere else I can check.

 

The pan gasket is most likely not the source of this. More than likely it is originating somewhere higher up. Start at the top and look very closely until you find the highest point with oil visible on the block or head.

 

There's a lot of common oil drip sources. Clean your pan up and check again next oil change, or whatever.

 

Well I tried to clean up the bay a little bit yesterday to help see where it may be coming from. Most of the block is just caked in black grime so it is a little tough to see what is new and what is old. So used some of the engine degreaser I snagged from my recon department at work, and pressure washed it down.

From what I can see:

-the rear portion near the intake manifold is clean, no issues there
-the front side of the engine is where it is a mess. There is a couple old stains on the valve cover by the filler cap and a little on the front of the heat shield from the last time I added oil. I got distracted and spilled it. No other new oil marks.
-area around the dizzy is clean of any oil
-everything behind the exhaust manifold is dirty. I cant really tell what is what back there. If its new oil it blends in with the old oil.
-the nut on the oil pan is tight and dit doesn’t look like anything is dripping from it

went out and drove it for a while yesterday after cleaning everything up. The top end seemed dry and no new stains/marks anywhere to be seen, while the flange between the downpipe and manifold had some oil on it, as well as underneath the car on the oil pan and on the downpipe up to where it meets the cat.

If its a valve cover gasket, i would think i would at least have a mark or some evidence on the heat shield? Or is that an incorrect assumption? I know I’m blowing some smoke at high RPMs so I know i’m am probably burning oil, or coolant (my overflow tank is suspiciously empty now), so if I’m leaking as well, I would want to track that down to try to prolong some major engine work for me

 

your engine sounds like it needs a rebuild.

 

I’m not going to argue with that. It’s in the plans, but since it would be the first time I pulled and rebuilt an engine I have been putting it off and slowly trying to get everything else squared away on the car. Not trying to rush it and since its my DD for now, I have kind of just been doing what it takes to keep it up and running until I have the cash, tools, space, time and preferably another DD or way to get around while I work through a rebuild.

 

Well it makes sense that since your engine is old and tired, no surprise, that compression is low, which increases pressure inside the engine and blowing out gaskets.

 

Did you check the back of the block around the oil filter?

You're sure it was engine oil and not transmission fluid, or something else?

 

I’ll have to double check by the filter once I can get it up on ramps/stands.

But its the same color and consistency as fresh-relatively fresh oil. Doesn’t look like trans fluid. Unless its something like water or a thin, clear liquid and its washing all of the grime and grease off of the block, its oil.

 

Is it an auto? Thought Honda just called for 10w40 in the manuals trans. If the trans has ever been off (and it's a manual) it could be coming from there as well. Had a sloppy seal on a manual swap cause an annoying seep that looked awful- ended up everywhere after a while. Didn't make it to the manifold though - being forward like that isn't something I've seen unless the valve cover gasket was very bad.

 

Should be Honda MTF in the manual trans. Any that I have used has had a light almost lavender color to it, and it has a distinct smell by itself... but after it runs down to the oil pan collecting other fluids and grime along the way, it can be hard to distinguish.