Most liked posts in thread: Oil leak on... exhaust??

I always had good luck with the OEM cork gaskets - I'd glue it on the valve cover, then put a good coat of grease on the other side, so I could remove it easily to adjust the valves - never had one leak like that.

 

could be coming from a couple different places... could be the rocker cover gasket... could be the Tappet covers on the backside of the engine...or could be coming from the shift selector O-ring or the transmission...or...well it could be coming from any number of places because the wind will get in there and whip that oil backwards...i would turn the car over and let it run...check the oil pressure gauge to see if you are getting changes in pressure

 

If you turn the car over it'll mess up the paint on the roof and the oil will drip on the inside of the hood.

 

If it is a rocker cover gasket oil leak, there is also an alternative to the traditional cork gasket. Here is a link to one of the many suppliers of the silicone gasket. Gasket Valve Rocker Cover Silicone, Mini, Sprite,

 

But... Many Mini engines don't have tappet covers. In fact, it you have a non-Cooper S A-series big block "1300" engine, you have a solid wall block and there are no tappet covers. They are only on the smaller engines (850, 997, 998, 1071, 1100) and the true 1275 S.

One less place to leak from.

 

Yes, Dave is absolutely right that I am right. :biggrin5:

 

Valve cover gasket .......

 

When you turn the car over won't create a bigger mess ??

 

If it stops smoking, by all means add more oil.

 

Wow. I had the same problem on my Mini. I say "had" because it has magically disappeared. But I don't trust it is really fixed - just hiding is my guess.

After getting back from the Mini Fun run to Arkansas last month, I found a nice collection of oil drippings on the garage floor. That really surprised me as it hadn't been leaking before that. But that was 1,300 miles of driving, including about 10 hours on the way home. I drove the car up on some ramps and tried to find the source. There was a mist of oil everywhere near the rear of the engine and on the exhaust and rod-change pieces too. It seemed to be coming from the differential where the left side drive shaft comes out. But, as I said, there was oil splattered everywhere in that area and it was difficult to tell with any certainty. I got some Dawn dish soap and sprayed a mixture of it all over the back of the engine and differential to try to clean up the mess.

My first thought was to look at the shift rod seal, but that seemed to be dry(-ish). It could be the axle seal, but it could also be anything else in that General area based upon the oil coating, including the mechanical fuel pump seal. I am also wondering about excessive crank pressure due to the extended high speed running. I've got a breather on the timing chain cover and a breather on the flywheel cover and they are both plumbed to the carb in what appears to be correct the OEM way. So that looks to be fully sorted.

Now the weird part is that since I cleaned the engine not a single drop of oil has fallen on the garage floor. So wherever the black gold was coming from before, it is not visible now.

I drove a good 25 minutes on the highway each way to/from the local Cars & Coffee a couple of weeks ago. The oil got nice and warm, but there no leaks that I can see. Certainly nothing dripping to the ground. Strange...

Hey, I'm not knocking it, I just don't really trust that it went away all on its own.

 

I'm guessing it's the rocker cover gasket... Look and see if it has a burnt space in the center on the firewall side. We've experienced this with the race car, created from a minor exhaust leak coming from center pipe on the header.

Another thought... We also Yamabond the gasket to the cover and put a nice coating of grease on the head side to make for easy removal. No real leaks with that method, maybe just a slow seepage.... No issues though.

 

I think you mean tappet cover, it is on the side of the block, on the intake/exhaust side of the engine. The intake and exhaust manifold have to come off to access it.

The rockers are under the same cover as the valves right on top of the engine, so a valve cover and a rocker cover would be the same thing.

 

Yep, I was surprised to see my engine did not have tappet covers - my 62 1100 had them.....

It probably is leaking from the fuel pump gasket, that's not unusual.....your blanking plate will fix it.

 

Rocker cover - Valve cover..... Semantics. The cover on top of the engine that covers the rockers.

I believe you meant to say A+ blocks Bruce.

 

No he's rght, Pre-A blocks are like that too - mine is.

 

Ok. Learned something new today.