severe oil leak 91 turbo

[N1446]

do i need to lift the motor to change the seals on a 91 ej22t sedan ?
the oil is leaking onto the front turbo exhaust and is causing lotts of smoke

- its been said the seals need to be replaced up front , any other places while i m doing this that should be checked ? this will be the first service since the car has been sitting

- starting point :?

[94SS_Canada]

Starting point?

Gasket Rebuild.

Get a gasket set (OEM)

Replace/clean anything you can see

Replace head gaskets, timing belt, water pump and oil pump if you think it needs be, Baby your care after that and shes good for another million miles! !

Just pull the moter, arrange for a beater car and take your time and do it right!

[juice91si]

where exactly is the oil coming from again?

what do you mean by front turbo exhaust?

do you mean the downpipe (after turbo) ?

or up pipe (before turbo) ?

[N1446]

i mean just below all the pulleys is a pipe and it runns side ways and gets very hot , the oil is dripping onto it after the engine heats up for 10minutes
when standing in front of the car looking towards the engine , the pipe is underneath the front of the engine - the pipe is pretty close to the rad

[94SS_Canada]

That is the oil cooler return line, is the oil dripping onto that?

From where?

[N1446]

the oil is dripping from under the motor onto what i m assuming is an exhaust pipe near the front of the engine compartment it burns off the oil and creates alot of smoke when driven normally
i have to keep the rpm below 2500

[N1446]

is it managable to perform work on the motor while it s in the car ? - if not i guess an engine lift is in the near future

in that case it s an overhaul

i m looking to doo some quick work before it is too cold to work on it outdoors

-

[Fkyx]

Hmmmm I have a leak in the same area. Very interested in this thread.

[93forestpearl]

Get under the car and look at where the oil is coming from. My guess is that the oil pump needs to be resealed. The o-ring that goes in there likes to leak. It comes out from behind the timing cover in the middle often. Also, the front main seal may need replacing.

The oil pump doesn't go bad, it just needs a new o-ring and a fresh application of rtv. Make sure you scrape off all the old silicone and clean the sealing surfaces off with acetone. Fresh silicone will not bond to cured silicone, and acetone is the only thing that effectively dissolves cured silicone.


May I also recommend throwing in a new timing belt and possibly water pump while you are in there.


Also, the bottom seal on the timing cover is junk once oil gets on it. That gasket soaks up oil and gets all puffy, and is useless.



A motor refreshening is not necessary to fix this problem. It is also very rare that headgaskets go on the 22T.

[93forestpearl]

And yes, you can all of this with the motor in the car. Spend two minutes to take the radiator out, and life is easy. Leave the fans on it when you pull it out.

[RJ93SS]

just had the same problem, just finished fixing it.

on the front of your engine there is a lot of seals, two cam seals, one on each side, an oil pump seal, and the crankshaft seal.

i replaced the cam and crank seals using non oem seals and they just started leaking so i did it all again with oem seals and so far so good. pull off your timing belt cover, fans, crank pulley, power steering/alternator belt, a/c belt ect. it's quite easy. then take off your timing belt, crank sprocket, and both cam sprockets. behind the sprockets are thick metal/rubber o rings type gaskets that tend to leak on all our subies. be sure to use oem and dont get oil on the outside of these rings, just a little on the inside.

if your oil pump or water pump or bearings or timing belt or anything under that cover is old or worn including the timing belt cover gasket, replace it now and you wont need to take that cover off again for a long time.

it might sound scary but it really is easy just follow the directions exactley as in your book, use exact torque ratings except for your crankshaft nut should be slightly over 110 ft,lbs.

there is no need to pull your engine or do your headgaskets or anything extreme like that, probably the only thing leaking is one or two of these seals.

[RJ93SS]

oh yeah, and you really don't need to pull your rad and drain all the fluids in it or anything like that, just take the fans off. be very careful not to strip any of the threads on your aluminum block.

[93forestpearl]

I just said to pull the radiator because having room is nice. Its not absolutely necessary, but it is nice when you can get an impact on the crank pulley bolt, and have that extra room in general.


But yes, it can be done with the radiator in the car.

[N1446]

ok Awesome
i m sure i m gonna have a few bloddy knuckles from this one
thankyou for sharing

:P

[BXSS]

I did timing belts/tensioners & front cam/cranke seals on both OBSs this past summer.

The '96 (ej22t style intake & v-covers) developed a oil leak from hell on the RHS front head which I figured was the cam seal.

When I took the timing covers off I found that tensioner was dead & the car was actually a tooth or so off timing & had been that way since I got the car.
I also found that the cam seal had sort of popped out of place & caused the super leak.
The timing job was actually pretty easy with a OEM Subaru belt that has the lines to orient the belt on the cams / crank properly on it.
The car ran better & started easier (starts on the first try all the time, it used to start on the second try with the belt off a tooth or two) after the SUPER LEAK so I guess it was a good thing.

My '99 (2.5 rs style intake/v-covers) did the exact same thing on the drivers side head about 3 weeks after the '96 was fixed - bad luck so I had to replace the above parts on that car too.

[Fkyx]

Does anyone have the part numbers for the seals that we should look at replacing?

[N1446]

ok -

so after looking around and prodding other leaky posts i m pretty sure this leak is going to be a contribution of the oil return + front seals and possibly the valve seals also

just looking at the oil return on this car makes me nachos
it nasssty

pretty sure it s dripping right onto the headder pipe / cross pipe

plus the bottom of the motor is coated with oil

i went and priced a full gasket set at the local automotive and its for me at 400 + CDN

dosn t sound right to me
i live in an area with NO SUBARU DEALER I KNOW I KNOW i should move

i moved here from big sity Halifax NS and they are a dime a dosen there , along with porsche bmw audi i miss it all

a price list would be awesome if it beats the above price for a full set ^^

-

[head2wind]

typically these are the things I go after:

dip stick o-rings
oil fill o-ring
drivers cam cover gasket, front cam shaft seal, front cam o-ring
front main seal
(this the more work intense side:) passenger: pull turbo, replace oil drain back hose, pull rear cam cover/turbo oil/water thingy and replace all the orings, while the back cam cover is off push the cam back then peal the front seal out and install new, cam cover gasket.

also check the CC vent that is just under/behind the alt. to make sure its not borked.