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Hello,
I have been removing my transmission to get to the rear oil seal (leaking :angry: ). I looked through the intake manifold to admire a successful job from when I replaced my intake gaskets which had been leaking coolant/oil previously. To my chagrin I noticed oil sitting on the upper manifold :ohmy: . The good news is that I am not seeing coolant (I have to take the air intake off first to be sure, but it looks only like oil to me). The intake and valve cover gaskets all appear fine on the outside.
I did a cold compression test (don’t hate! the transmission was half-way out) and the numbers all were good (first stroke was between 85-95 PSI and by the third stroke all shown between 145-155 PSI). There does appear to be oil on only ONE side of EVERY sparkplug (I am assuming that this may be oil carried in from the oil sitting on the upper manifold). The PCV is new less than 10K miles. While I can replace this, the amount of oil appears to be above and beyond the PCV system. What else should I look into for sources of oil into the engine? Is a leak down test necessary considering it’s doing well on the compression test, or am I misunderstanding previous videos/guides.
Best, Steven
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Can you post a pic of the oil? Some oil in a 3800 Series II engine intake is normal, due to the crankcase ventilation system some oil will get pulled into the intake naturally, but it should not be much.
Here is a crude picture; I didn’t get your message until this morning and didn’t take the manifold off since I was late for work. Here are two pictures showing both sides of the upper manifold with one clearly showing quite the puddle of oil.
I did not get a picture, but after removing the exhaust crossover pipe last night, it looks like I may have a small oil leak out of the rear head-gasket. Could the excess oil in the engine be related or no considering I saw no ill compression?
Update: Finally had a few hours to begin removing the wires/fuel rail/intake. I feel this is too much oil on the manifold and am suspecting a leak from somewhere. I am going to replace the intake manifold gaskets and PCV assembly. What else should I be looking at?
Hi,
Just to follow up on this job. I completed it about a week ago and have put on roughly 400 miles since then.
The following leaks/issues were seen during top-end deconstruction:
1) Both head gaskets (just slight on the front, substantial on the rear)
2) Solid (not soft/squishy) valve seals on cylinder 4
3) HUGE/thick Carbon build ups on the rear cylinders (lesser on the front)
4) Bad rear-main seal (taking off the cover resulted in lots of little pieces
5) Pieces of almost saran-wrap like material on the lifter guides for cylinder 3/5 (I suspect this material is what made the engine smell bad once it was hot as it had the same smell when cold…I can’t help but smell anything anomalous)The good news was that a straightedge shown no detectable warping in the heads and the cylinder walls were pristine and no scratches/marks
The PCV system all had nice looking O-rings still and the PCV valve wasn’t that old (maybe 10K). The PCV valve could have been defective accounting for the excess oil pooling on the lower manifold.
The following jobs were completed (some not related, but problems found in the meantime
1) Cleaned and polished carbon buildup for heads and cylinders
2) reseated valve-stems
3) New head, exhaust valve cover gaskets (re-used my metal intake gaskets as they were in excellent condition and no oil leaks were seen here)
4) aluminum coolant elbows added
5) new rear main gasket and oil seal
6) new flexplate (old one was warped…possibly from oil leaking onto the hot plate?)
7) new driveaxle seal and updated car to DexVI (It now shifts like a knife through butter!)
9) New hub assembly (it fell apart on me! That explains the ABS light coming on now)
10) New intake manifold and PCV valves/plenums (likely not necessary, but the stories of failing intakes have scared me even though I believe this was fixed for the 2004 model year)So far all has been good and the engine feels more solid again.
I now hear new noises/concerns that I vaguely recall hearing before, but couldn’t distinguish over the squealing of the warped flexplate. I will post these in another thread though.
I guess I will follow up with this question: Could bad valve stem seals/head gaskets lead to oil on the upper manifold? I wouldn’t think so based on the way the air flows into the cylinders, but am not sure.
I am currently in the process of replacing the LIM gasket and UIM assembly with the upgraded pack from ATP to address the EGR stove-pipe melting the plastic issue.
During disassembly, I had to clean a great deal of oil build up from the top of the LIM (I understand oil here is expected, but this seemed excessive). I’m optimistically hoping that this is due to a malfunctioning PVC along with some coolant leak from near the plastic break down from the EGR…(the build up fell under the class of schmu so assuming some oil/coolant mix)
BUT I can’t help but notice your mention of failed head gaskets being the result of the excess oil pooling on top of the LIM. Can anyone explain how a head gasket leak on this motor could result in pooling on the LIM…my brain can’t process that process.
I cross my fingers that I am not having a head gasket issue (cylinders pass compression test by 70% or better) but wanted to get your insight on how a head gasket leak would cause pooling in the LIM?
Recommended tests/inspections for head gasket while LIM is removed?Thanks!
You’ve been busy staying dirty for sure. I like that.
To answer your second question. Most of the oil leaks I see are the result of gasket failure. Second most common, is issues with PCV. I think t’s important to note, many issues with PCV can be caused by excessive blow by.
With that said, perhaps put some dye in the oil and see if you can track down the source of the leak. That might have been something to try at the onset honestly before you did all that work. But let’s not go there.
I cover the procedure for finding leak sources here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/finding-and-fixing-leaks
I’ll be on the lookout for the thread on the noise, but in the mean time you might want to look this over.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car
Please keep us updated on your progress.
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