many engine oil leaks - Videos ADDED and PICS

[SiCkSTi04]

NEW PICTURES ADDED FEW POSTS DOWN.**


Hello all, i own a 91 legacy wagon L NA fwd AT with 170k. idles at 500k and drives perfect for an older subie. i just picked her up no more then a month knowing about the leaks before buying but figured it wasn't this bad lol.

last week i cleaned all the over the years oil leak build up's just to give me a good idea about how much could be leaking. also ive searched and talked to ciper via irc about all the most common leaks that needs to be fixed. hoping to take the car over to my parents how and pull the engine.

today was i was driving home i saw smoke coming from under hood just moments away from my home. so i pop the hood and check, i see smoke coming from the passenger side exhaust, so i jack the car up and give the underside a peek....oil all over my front passenger side wheel well, on the strut, brake axle etc. now with me buying the car from older folks and reading over all there service records, they did replace alot of stuff including the valve gaskets but i dont think the bolt washers. the driver side engine looks like it had oil leaks but telling from today it doesnt have any besides the front seals.

i added 3 videos, the first being the most overall video showing the leaks while the car is running and jacked up.

also the car seems to be making a little click/knock noise. is this the lifters?

thnx!

[Arctic Assassian]

Sounds like you need new cam seal and o-rings. Valve covers, spark tube seals, washer grommets. you can do that shit with it in the car, just support the motor, unbolt the motor mounts, raise the motor, and put wood blocks between the crossmember and it. Then you can move the motor side to side, and have room to work.

[SiCkSTi04]

wat r spark tube seals?

[IronMonkeyL255]

While you got all that stuff off to do the cam seals, do the front crank seal, water pump and timing belt.

When my brother's front crank seal went, it covered the whole bottom of the car in oil. He ran it with little to no oil for a while, and it still runs like a champ (though I chastised him thoroughly for it after I fixed it).

[scuzzy]

Have you bothered checking the oil?

What's running off the engine there on the bottom is a few things:
1st. It's moving too fast, a small leak is one thing but this is like you've blown a head gasket
2nd: It looks very light weight, like it has a lot of water mixed in. reinforces a blown head gasket hypothesis
3rd: that's not lifter tappings. I've heard lifters tapping and rod knock (both in person).

What sounds like what happened is you've blown a headgasket in such a way to mix the coolant with the oil, which has made the oil thin enough to:

- Not provide sufficient lubrication to the engine and thus ruin your crank bearings, causing the rod knocking you're hearing
- and, cause the thin oil/water frothy mix to leak through old worn out seals (lighter weight oils leak through seals readily versus heavier weight oils)


Of course, this is all speculation provided by the videos you've recorded and your spoken word, you'll never know for sure until you tear down the engine and inspect the crank bearings or do nothing and wait for it to lock up entirely.

But it sounds like you're in for a new motor, based on this evidence.

Sorry buddy

[asc_up]

I dunno Scuzzy. It doesn't quite sound loud enough to be rod knock. I'm having the same problem with my lifters and it sounds exactly like that.

But I do agree that that oil is WAY too thin. I'd do an oil change to see what happens. If it gets watery like that again, you definitely have a blown head gasket.

[scuzzy]

I dunno Scuzzy. It doesn't quite sound loud enough to be rod knock. I'm having the same problem with my lifters and it sounds exactly like that.

But I do agree that that oil is WAY too thin. I'd do an oil change to see what happens. If it gets watery like that again, you definitely have a blown head gasket.

thin oil = spun bearings, it takes no time at all.

that sounds exactly like rod knock. lifters make a tapping noise, that's a knocking - they don't sound any alike.

the lifters on my engine tap too, but they do it continiously at idle; it doesn't come and go or have any other associated metal noises with it like the videos posted above do too.

I'm not saying his lifters aren't tapping; I'm saying his engine is knocking, it's very distinctive in the first video.

[asc_up]

I'm not saying his lifters aren't tapping; I'm saying his engine is knocking, it's very distinctive in the first video.

Ok. I went back to listen to the first video and I have to agree. Sounds like a deep, hallow knock...


Time for an EJ20G...??

[SiCkSTi04]

hey guys thanks for all your input with my problem, as of yesterday i made an other thread in the drivetrain sectiontelling about yet an other problem. the videos were filmed one week after an oil change, 10w30 castro oil. like scuzzy said, rebuild time =|

[scuzzy]

the oil really isn't to blame here, it looks like you blew a headgasket and the coolant was seeping back into the oil to contaminate the oil; but that the chambers were still sealed sufficiently enough to not cause overheating.

the water essentially screwed up the lubrication of the oil and has destroyed your bearings as a result.

for the record, all I've ever used (and trusted to use) was Castrol 10W30, about 10k miles ago I switched to Castrol full synthetic 10W30 and it's done me great so far, so don't be worried about the brand being your problem

These were just mechanical issues, likely the previous owners started seeing these symptoms and offloaded the car on you before it progressed to this point - that's just a guess though. "old people" don't tend to get rid of reliable vehicles until they're just dead.

[SiCkSTi04]

so is there any smart to handle this? im thinking of taking it some where to have it looked at then go from there. either rebuilding the engine or buying a replacement.

[SiCkSTi04]

im going to drain my oil to see if everythings ok. would it be a good idea to check the spark plugs? would that tell me anything from looking at them.

[asc_up]

Everything's NOT ok. Rod knock means that your engine is toast. I bet if you keep driving it around for a little bit longer you'll start to get bluish smoke coming out of your exhaust and then the engine will stop working.

[scuzzy]

there's a good chance that as it gets worse (which it can do in a matter of 100 miles) it will completely seize.

of course, the bearings can "stack" (which isn't unheard of) which will lock the engine up to the point to where you can't turn it at all.

What normally happens is that the bearings wear enough to produce a big gap between the rod and the bearing, the increased friction prevents the engine from idling; and if it is running, the connecting rod bounces against the crankshaft, making the wear more rapid (and arresting energy transfer)

[SiCkSTi04]

would the knocking get louder as the rpms start to rise? just looking for more signs of either engine knock or blown gasket.

[asc_up]

Yes. The knocking should get louder and faster at higher RPMs.

[SiCkSTi04]

the knocking goes away during higher rpms, but i do hear some type of metal sound. i think its a loose exhaust shield.

today i inspected the spark plugs, drained the oil, replaced the pcv valve and seafoamed the car.

the oil wasnt milky at all, little dark from the seafoam. pcv valve swapped



here are the spark plugs starting with the passenger side's then driver. as u can see the first two has to look like coolant on them. i could be wrong





after all that the noise underside was alot more quieter. i did capture a new video

[scuzzy]

the noise probably goes away because oil pressure increases - It seems like you're definitely at the start of it though.

Those plugs appear to be fine, do a compression check.