Driving home from work, I stop at a light and smoke comes out from under my car, oil burning off my headers, quite a bit of it. I take a look under the car and the driver side exhaust is covered in oil all the way back to where the 2 pipes join in the 'Y-pipe', (hooker longtube headers). I haven't done any mods to the car in over a year. At first I thought the oil was leaking from the filter, but after taking the filer off, I could see oil leaking from higher up. I see that where the oil filter screws into is a separate piece, which would lead me to believe there is a gasket in between that may have gone bad. It doesn't seem to be coming from the rear main seal, only that one side of the motor has oil all over it. Any thoughts on this would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

It could be the infamous intake manifold leak.

 

i second that. once the block is cool enough to touch, feel along the back portion of the block behind and just below the intake manifold for oil. more than likely it is coming from there. use the search feature to find some good information on the infamous intake leak and some good ways to fix it for good.

BTW- welcome to the site

edit: also, if thats doesnt appear to be the problem, come back and let us know and we'll work from there.

 

Well, I checked the back to the motor, under the intake manifold, there was wet oil, that's not to say that there wasn't oil/dirt in a lot of other places either, my engine compartment isn't the cleanest thing in the world. However, I do have some issues with this. I don't even see why oil is being pushed through the intake manifold in the first place. And, a lot of oil is leaking, I can't imagine there being so much pressure in there to really cause suck a bad leak, I lost about 4 quarts of oil in about 15 miles of driving, so it's not something I could drive with just keeping my eye on it, it's quite a considerable oil loss. So, I don't know what I am going to do, a shop will charge me around $1,000 to fix this, keeping in mind the car is only worth around $3,000. I'll try to get more estimates I suppose. Thank you for your replies.

 

okay. all is not lost.

first of all, the oil runs under the intake manifold. it splashes around the valley where the lifters are. the leak is where the intake meets up with the block. this is not a hard fix. it should be one that you can do on your own provided you take some time to get educated on how to do it.

secondly, that is a HUGE oil leak if your losing 4qts in 15 miles. you should have an oil trail that follows your vehicle. if you have a floor jack and its leaking that bad, you should be able to lift the car, start it, then go look under the car to see where it should be just spraying out (btw- make sure the car is fully supported with jack stands, back tires blocked and just lay off to the side of the vehicle while its running).

or, try this: take and wipe down the motor with a towel and some degreaser. doesnt have to be perfect. just get it clean enough so that you can tell new oil splashes from old ones. run the car for a minute and then get back under it and see where the new oil has trailed from.

 

definately sounds like the intake oil leak, mine was leaking from there and it was losing 1 qaurt everytime ild go anywhere in it. also check the oil sending unit though, mine was pretty loose so i went ahead and changed it with the intake gasket. i dont know for sure if it was leaking or not, but it was loose and wasy to get to at the time so i took the safe route and changed it too lol. oh and for a shop to do it its not that bad 4 hours labor charge + the gasket should be around 200 total (thats what it was around here anyway $40/hour + $20 gasket + tax )

 

If it is the intake leak, it's not a bad job. Done a few of them myself......

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