So I took my car in to get the front seal replaced, the belt replaced (because it had oil all over it), the cooling system bled and the tps adjusted. The front seal was replaced and the guy said he fixed a leaky oil line. The system was bled. Took the car back into town and within 10 minutes it was overheating and there was oil everywhere. What could this be?

The oil under the car seems to be accumulating towards the front right and it's kind of in a straight line. It's also in other areas under the car but mostly right at the front of the engine. It has to be spraying, not dripping, because it's coming out like crazy and when I get on it you can see smoke everywhere from what I assume is the oil burning off of the longtubes.

As far as the overheating goes, it seems as though air is continually getting trapped in the system. I'm going to buy a new radiator cap on Monday or Tuesday and see how that goes. Anything else I should check? The overheating is random. It will get really hot, then cool down. Sometimes it'll stay cool for a while, other times it gets hot immediately. Sometimes when I shut the car off and its running cool, I'll turn it back on and it'll get red hot. WTF!?!?!?!?!?!? I'm getting pretty frustrated. I've had a lot of problems over the past couple years and I just want to drive my car. I'm not even trying to do any more mods this year and maybe none next year. I just want to enjoy it for once.

 

I would check the seal between the front cover and oil pan. It is possible that the cover was not properly re-installed to seal with the oil pan gasket, or the gasket may have been torn.

 

the thing is, the oil really sprays out at higher rpms... and since the oil pan isn't under a high amount of pressure, could it really be the problem?

 

He said he fixed a leaky oil line? Where is there an oil line on an LT1?

 

+1

Could it be a tranny fluid line running up to the radiator? I don't know for sure without a sig plus I have an M6.

 

Intake or valve cover. Oil leaks are not that hard to find. Clean it and run it. Find a new shop to go to.

 

Valve cover, CPS sensor, Timing chain cover seal, and the oil pan seal are where i'd start.

 

he said something about oil cooler lines. I didn't know my car had an oil cooler in the radiator. but when I pulled into the gas station last night after the car got hot again, it sure did look like the liquid on the ground was tinted red (although it was 10pm and dark so it was hard to tell). My $28 belt that I just replaced is now coated in lubricant.... I'm just not a happy camper.

Now that I have some ideas about the oil/tranny fluid leak, where should I start with the cooling problem. I'm going to change the radiator cap. Other than that, there doesn't appear to be any coolant leaks, the car just gets REALLY hot and then it'll be ok after a while. Then it'll run fine for a while, then creep back up, then get really hot. It's weird.

 

Are you hitting these high temps while sitting at idle or while driving? The fans on these cars are programed to turn on at a pretty high temp so the temp will increase quite a bit when sitting at a stand still (3/4 up on the dash)....but drop down to 180 or so while driving...about 1/4 up on the dash indicator....

 

It sounds like a head gasket...losing coolant? White smoke? I would be more worried about that before the oil leak.

 

Don't use this guy anymore. He is a BS artist. These cars leak from the intake manifold where it meets the block, from the dip stick tube were it meets the block and many other places. I feel it is cheaper to refill oil than to fix all the leaks, unless you are upset by the mess or have bigger problems and need to fi everything at once. At some point fixing it all will exced the value of the car. Overheating is usually related to a blockage somewhere in the cooling systaem. Most likelt the radiator ~ if you are lucky ~ the thermostat. As the LT1 ages it develops cooling, leak, and ignition problems Find a mechanic who knows this engine and stick with him.

 

I had the same problem with my sons car and just got it put back together today. It had been in the shop to replace the front crank shaft seal and the shop failed to replace the two other seals in the timing chain cover. The seal on the water pump shaft is very difficult to replace without tearing the seal. I went through three seals before I could get it to go on right.

Did your mechanic take the timing chain cover off? If he did he more than likely damaged the oil pan gasket which is what happened to us. If that is what happened ur in for some work. I just got finished replacing oil pan gasket, timing chain gasket, all of the O rings on water pump shaft and O rings on opti spark, all three seals on the timing chain. It's a chore so good luck. It's tricky getting the pan gasket off.

 

it's not a head gasket, I'm not losing any coolant, air just keeps getting trapped in the system. The engine has all brand new gasket with less than 1000 miles on them. The water pump, radiator and hoses all have less than 15k on them and the thermostat has less that 1k on it. The coolant is also relatively fresh. The oil leak isn't just a minor annoyance, it's spraying EVERYWHERE and that's what's causing the smoking. It's burning off the headers, it's got my pullies and belt all lubed up. The entire underside of the engine and K-member are lubed up and once I stop it all drips off. It's quite a bit of oil. It doesn't leak when the car is sitting. It sprays out when the oil pressure goes up. These two issues are so wierd.

 

Sorry to hear that it still a problem. Oil everywhere is a bigger deal. Could someone have over filled the crank case? The overheating problem may be unrelated to the oil problem. .. Probably the radiator needs replacing. The oil issue is so severe that it must be spurting from a high pressure area of the oiling system. You need to find where it is coming from. Clean the engine and front chasis parts without getting the opti wet... let it dry and slide uder the car on jack stands and have someone start it with the correct oil level. Once you spot the source you can have it fixed.

 

I hope its not the radiator. The radiator is fairly new. There are no coolant leaks, so I'm thinking that maybe the air is coming in through the cap. Could that be the problem? As far as the oil leak goes, I guess time will tell.