Hi folks,
please bare with my english as I'm not .. uhm .. english

I've got an oilleak from the camcover down on to the exhaust causing smoke from the enginebay. I've had the front crankseal changed twice (different people changed them, don't have any reason to suspect any of them of doing it wrong, one was at a garage) as it had been pushed out against the oilpump and started to leak quite badly.

I've tried removing the oilfiller cap and putting my hand above it, and can feel breating/pulsating air, can't see smoke though. No breathing / pulsating when removing oil dipstick.

I'm thinking either something wrong with a piston / piston rings, or that the breathers aren't working correctly. Am thinking of letting the garage make a compression test and check the breathers, but before that, does anyone have any other suggestions as to what might be at fault, or any ideas of how I can rule out something?

The car pops and bangs when releasing throttle and enginebraking, but I don't think it's missfiring just running on a too fat mix (haven't had it mapped since it came from japan).

The car has done about 8000km (5000 miles) and is an STI RA MY97 (v3). It does have piston slap when cold but it goes away when warm. I believe it's seen some harsh times as there's a lot of black soot / carbon dust on the "underside" of the hood and in the enginebay.

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

 

When you say cam cover?do you mean rocker cover?or cam belt cover? You dont mention having the Rocker cover gasget replaced. Quite common for them to leak oil on to the up-pipe.

 

Sorry, I meant the cam belt cover. It's leaking down on to the headers (if that's what's underneath the cam belt cover. There are pipes, and they're hot as hell ).

The leaks so far has come from the front crankseal being pushed out.

 

Remove the oil pump, and tighten the screws on the back. The chances are, the oil pump is leaking pressure and pushing the seal out.

 

Hi,
thanks for the tip. Do you mean that the screws are on the back of the pump?

Could the problem be if the pump's relief valve isn't working correctly, and therefore creating excessive oilpressure?

Oh, and the oil pressure gauge isn't showing abnormal pressure.

 

I just realised that what I call "cam belt cover" is probably called "timing belt cover".

 

If it is a High mileage engine ( or a badly abused engine) it could be worn thrusts on the Main bearings - this will allow the crank to move backwards and forwards and eventually push the front and rear main seals out of place.
This happens more on Versions 1 - 4 with a center thrust crank/block.

 

I had a look at the car yesterday. Took the IC off, and located the pipes for the breathers, but couldn't get to them because of the turbo. Didn't have time or a good place to remove the turbo and everything that goes with it. However, we did lift the oil filler cap with the enginge running on idle. Putting the hand over the cap, it doesn't build up any pressure, so I guess that ought to rule out bad crank case ventilation as well as bad pistons / pistonrings?

For the moment I'll keep driving the car and see if the leak comes back. If it does, I'll probably change the oil pump for an RCM one as well as make a compression test.