Substantial oil leak
 

Hey everyone!

This is my first post on these forums, so I hope this goes well! I just purchased a "slightly used" 2000 Saturn SL2 for my stepson as his first car. It has around 120k and seems to be in great shape, needing the usual maintenance items to be performed. My one concern is an oil leak. As in Exxon Valdez in the front of the engine at the belt area. With the belt slinging oil everywhere it's hard to pinpoint. So far I have changed the valve cover gasket and the front oil seal. I shampooed off everything and an our later it looked like it had just been rustproofed! Are these engines known for head gasket leaks or another area I should focus on?

Thanks in advance!

Jeff

The DOHC engines do not normally exhibit such a leakage problem. Suspect the valve cover gasket may have been damaged during the re-assembly, or possible, the gasket mating surface was not properly cleaned/prepared ...

Thanks Ocean. It may be that the valve cover gasket wasn't installed correctly. I'll pull it back off in the morning and try again. It was a Fel Pro gasket from the local auto parts store. I usually don't have issues but now that you mention it, this one seemed too big to fit the opening. I know the gasket surface was ok since I used my roloc discs to clean it well.

Jeff

Just a bit of an update: engine has been removed, new head gasket, new timing chains and guides since the other ones were questionable. Engine is back in. Going to start and run it for the first time today once it warms up. The head gasket was definitely shot.

While I had the engine on the floor I cleaned a HUGE amount of carbon from the piston tops and underside of the cylinder head. I also cleaned a surprising amount of gook from the throttle body while it was easily accessible.

Thanks for your help guys!

Jeff

Good luck -- let us know what happens

Thanks Derf.

I'll let you know!

Jeff

Ok I cycled the key a couple of times to build fuel pressure then cranked it. It started just like I had run it yesterday! A few small glitches so far: coolant low light is on in the dash. I think I need to take take the reservoir off and make sure I plugged it back in (I had taken it off to scrub it inside and out).

Forgetting to plug in the oil pressure sensor will trip the oil light too! lol

Other than that it's running smoother than it ever has.

Jeff

I am standing here in awe. I replaced head gasket, valve cover gasket, resealed timing chain cover, front cover oil seal, timing chains, oil filter and after 20 miles it has STILL poured 3 qts oil all over the new accessory drive belt and flung it all over the front of the engine compartment. Not sure where to turn at this point..

Little help?

Thats a lot of oil, could there be a crack in the timing chain cover in the oil pump area? It has to be coming from that front main seal area to be slinging it the way it does. Do you think the engine may be tired-too much blowby/crancase pressure?

I agree - it's definitely got to be on the pressure side to do this. When I had the head off, the cylinder bores still had the cross hatch on them and there was no cylinder ridge, so I don't think it's excessively worn. Also when you take the oil cap off when running you don't get a lot of blow by that way.

The problem is when it gets into the accessory drive belt area the whole front is wet and you can't pin down where it's coming from.

Not really sure where to turn next...

Jeff