This is somewhat of a continuance to a previous thread that I started. Any rate I have an oil leak that started after swapping in a new set of heads. Long story short, I'm leaking oil from the head gasket. I'm not burning oil and I don't have oil in my water or water in my oil. I'm getting ready to pull the heads tonight and just want to make sure that I'm covering my bases. The only way I figure that oil can be coming from a head gasket leak is, in order of most likely cause:

1. Head deck surface isn't true. I've got a machinist straight-edge and I'll check them when I pull them. If they look bad or even marginal I'm going to have them milled a little.
2. Bad head gasket. This was a brand new Felpro 1074, so I'm thinking that the chances are pretty slim that this is the cause.
3. Bad block deck surface. Didn't have any leaks with the previous set of heads that I had so I don't think so. And by the way I installed the heads with a brand new set of ARP head bolts, and when I pull them, I'm replacing them. I figure 60 bucks is worth piece of mind.

Can a bad valve job cause oil to leak out of the head gasket?? Again remembering that I have zero smoke out the tail pipes and the car is running great. I don't completely understand how a bad valve job or seat could cause this symptom, but that's why I'm posting this. Maybe you could enlighten me.

Thanks.

 

There is no oil under pressure in the head. I doubt it is your head gasket at all, unless you have some other symptoms. Did you check out your valve cover gaskets?

 

What heads are you running? My AFR's had a hell of a time sealing around the valve covers (originally thought it was the head to block surface) and I later found out you need to use shorter valve cover bolts or they'll bottom out before the seal gets compressed.

 

I have the same leak in exactly the same spot. I almost went crazy trying to find it. I bought a dye & light kit, replaced gaskets at the intake, oil filter housing, etc. and then I found it between the head and block on the drivers side near the back of the engine. It used to drip right on the cat. Now, before I bought my car I knew it had been overheated, the heads redone, and they used Felpro gaskets. I tried retorqueing the heads but to no avail, so not wanting to pull the heads I used a can of K&W Block Seal. Follow the directions exactly and bye bye leak.

 

Shoebox,

I agree with you entirely. I did the same thing as in crheinish's post below and with a dye kit I found that I have several small leaks between the block and the head. They're actually fairly small, but enough to accumulate on the block and eventually leak onto my headers causing smoke and a nasty smell that's pretty annoying. I don't understand how oil could be leaking like that, and not finding it's way into my cylinders. I'm so curious that I'm willing to pull the heads to find out exactly what the hell is going on.

 

Mark I've got exactly half a set of ARP head bolts if your only pulling one head if you want them.

 

Thanks man, but it's doing it from both heads and I already have a brand new set of ARP bolts that came via FedEx Ground today.

 

And BTW put brand new valve cover gaskets on. Apparently, like the Chevrolet Dealer, my motto is "replace parts until the problem goes away". At this rate I'll have to put a new motor in the car before I'm happy. Which of course is what I want to do anyway.

 

I like this answer, I'll bet it's right.

 

Didnt read this before I put the above post .

Oil would have to be sucked into the cylender through the vaslley and expelled that direction . the only head bolts that could touch oul would be the top most and extreme side bolts, the oil could possibly leak down those and move out.

 

I thought about that too, but I still don't understand why the head gasket wouldn't seal that leak as well. Hopefully I'll have some answers when I pull the heads. The only certainty I have right now is that it's definitely leaking from between the head and the block.

 

I apologize but I misspoke in my previous post. When I used the dye kit I found that it was actually a coolant leak between the head and the block that was collecting oil in the vicinity disguising itself as an oil leak. I had an oil leak from intake/valve cover that would run down the drivers side of the engine, then the coolant would seep out between the head and block collect the oil and drip on the cat. So use the coolant dye and the engine oil dye together and you may find you have a coolant leak between the head and block not an oil leak.

 

This makes more sense and is kind of what I'm thinking, but still the leaks seems to be more oil than coolant. At any rate I've already got the headers off, heads are next after I've done a leak down test on every cylinder, just to be sure.

 

I had an oil leak on the right side of my engine after installing headers, thought it was around the head gasket ...turned out to be the dipstick housing where it goes into the block. All I did was clean the area and put a bead of RTV around the dip stick tube. Problem solved!!! I hope you find a somple solution before you pull the head..