I have done many searchs but cant find anything specific enough. i have had an oil leak as long as i've had the car. it started out has a few little drops from the front everynow and then but its getting worse. everything around the opti/waterpump area and down is covered with oil and the bottom of the tranny and flywheel are coated as well. so now i'm getting drops at the front and rear of the engine. what is it thats leaking? no oil on the starter so i think i can rule out the heads. any help would be great, i'd like to get started on fixing it soon so i can have it all done by the weekend!

 

definetly sounds like intake leak to mean, after you do it you'll still see residula leaking, clean the engine through, be careful with the opti though.

Matt.

 

thanks, where can i pick up new gaskets for the intake manifold at?

 

Any decent autoparts store will have an intake set. The gaskets on the sides are gaskets, the front and rear are RTV. Main tip is to get the places RTV goes very clean and rough up surfaces for the rtv to grip better on. I like permatex ultra black but normally an intake set from Felpro will come with the sealer. Make sure you let it 100% dry before firing up the car. It may be worth the $20 to by a UV dye kit to really figure out where the leaks are before ripping the car apart. Just my 2 pennies.

 

yea i bought the UV stuff, i just havent had to go anywhere so i havent dropped it in yet, does the gasket have its own kind of sealant for it or do u just use the RTV stuff, i was probably going the get the ultra copper RTV cause i heard that works real well and can handle the heat. I'm pretty sure that its the intake manifold though cause when i reach behind it and feel around where the intake ends and down the block, i can feel oil all over, that would be what is causing the oil to leak all over the bottom of my transmission right?

 

Sounds like intake leak since your hand was oily after touching rear of intake, and since rear of intake is leaking the transmission will be covered in oil also. First step would be to go ahead and fix leak, clean up as much residual oil under vehicle and drive and see if that was the only leak. I have fixed the intake leak on both my cars, the Z28 only leaked from the rear, the T/A leaked from the front and rear. Go ahead and use the ultra copper rtv if you like and before installing intake use some brake cleaner and clean intake and engine gasket surfaces so the gaskets have a clean place to seal and so that the rtv has an "oil residue free" surface to stick to and seal onto.

 

When I did my cam change I discovered that my intake oil leak was from
both the front and rear. Although I consider my motor pretty clean, it was
a mess above and around the timing cover. I was never sure where the oil
leak was coming from but most of the noticable drips were from the rear
and the front was just a big dirty mess. There is a lot more area in the
front for oil and debris to accumulate.

I used the high temp red RTV and have not had a drop of oil since the cam
change.

 

thanks a lot guys. one more question b4 i get this little project started, all the water pump area is covered with oil, could that be from the front of the manifold? wouldn't the bottom of the intake elbow be covered as well if it was leaking?

 

The front might be leaking from the timing chain cover.

 

how hard is it to change the timing cover?

 

Bottom of intake elbow is far enough away from engine that it should not have any oil on it. My T/A intake leaked from the rear and the front causing timing chain cover to be full of oil. Do the intake reseal and check again after driving. Common front oil leaks usually come from the opti seal or water pump drive seal.... less common is front crankshaft seal. I hate oil leaks and alway fix them when one is noticed. One other thing I have done to both my cars is replace the low oil level sensor because they are known to leak also, but they usually only leak small amount and easy to track down when they do leak.