I'm tackling as much as I can on my first Honda, and I'm trying to track down an oil leak. It's an '87 CRX with a D15A3. I thought it was the valve cover since the whole engine/trans was caked in sludge. I cleaned it up, drove it, and my leak isn't the valve cover. I took some pictures.

By the looks of it, the leak is on the psgr side of the front of the block. It's a pretty heavy leak; in 30 miles I lost about half a quart. Does anyone have any insight on what this leak might be caused by? I'd just rather confirm before I start buying parts. Thanks!

 

 

Check the distributor o-ring (if it has one), or the shaft seal inside the distributor.

 

Well, looks like you're dead right. The o ring inside was flattened and brittle. Definitely the source of my leak. Sadly, it looks like Honda discontinued the part so I tried a GM 2.5in o-ring. It's definitely a hair too big, but I'm hoping it'll be enough to seal. Gonna check it this afternoon. Thanks for the help!

 

Yep, problem solved! Distributor o-ring had gone bad. The GM o-ring didn't fit (too big, and caused a worse leak than before), so I ended up using a lot of RTV to seal it. I'm going to keep searching for the proper o-ring, but it is surprisingly tough to track down. For now, thank you. I'm not losing all of my oil now!

 

Glad you got it sealed up. You may be able to go to an auto parts store and ask if you can rummage through their o-rings. I've done that before and found what I needed.