Engine Oil Leak, Gasket?

[Peter09]

Hi all, just needing some help with an oil leak. oil is dripping from underneath at the front of the sump, when i went to have a closer look i found it hard to determine a few things.
(couldn't upload onto here for some reason, everytime i clicked manage attachments nothing happened :/)

Firstly the oil sump gasket doesn't look right, its white and looks more like ###### kitchen silicone! is this right or just a mod from the last owner?

Second, whats this gasket?(2) is it possable the oil is leaking from here? the oil seems to come from the arrow side of the black rubber gasket, just wondering if its just run down from the oil sump.

Any help guys? thanks

[surfenstein]

it could be a few possible things,firstly you want to steam clean that area and then run the engine ,that way you can see where the leak is from,its a possibility it could be the front crank seal or camshaft seal or even the rocker cover,my advice would be to remove the crankcase cover and check around those areas.if it doesnt appear to be coming from the sump.

[GRASSMAN]

Hi Peter,

I've had the same problem, it turned out to be
the cam cover gasket, (oil everywhere) steamed
it off last Saturday. but still drips a little now and
then hoping it will stop when there's no more oil left
on the engine. (I might have missed some)
Hope this helps.

Gman.

[Peter09]

Hi again, thanks for the replies.

I'll steam clean and remove the crankcase cover and see if i can find the leak.

A few months back i change the recover cover gasket, so hopefully thats not the problem.

How big a job is it to change the sump gasket or crank seal?

[jubilant]

ive been having the same problem

thanks for the info guys, i have had the same problem and upon changing my glow plugs i found the fault, the garage that had been working on a starting fault had stipped the rocker cover off and twisted the gasket !!! guess im not going back there again...but a steam clean sounds nice so im off out this morning to make my blue oiler a sweet clean shinny thing again..

[danielsprague]

Silicone is standard on the 2L / 3L sump as there's no other gasket. It could be a leak from the sump, but as above I reckon it's more likely to be the crankshaft front oil seal, the cam seal, or perhaps the valve cover gasket. You need to work out if it's coming from inside the plastic timing belt cover, or from the valve gasket and dripping down the engine.

If there's any question of it coming down the inside of the timing belt cover, get it looked at quick, as I doubt the oil will do the timing belt any good. Changing either the crankshaft front or camshaft seal means taking the timing belt off, and the pulleys, which requires a decent puller. It's a longish job.

Also, be very careful if you need to remove an old seal, and make sure you use a good quality (i.e. NOK or KOYO) seal to replace it. The iner surface of the seal should have 'blades' to channel the oil back towards the engine.

Hope it's not too big a job

Daniel

[Peter09]

thanks for the info, due to lack of time and no confidence to go near the timing belt, i am going to drop the car off at a m8's garage.

Hopefully they wont charge me to much but fix the problem,

just so i get an idea, what sort of price would be involved in say it being a crank seal?

[wishbone]

The actual crank seal is under a fiver. The problem is all the belts etc have to come off to do it. I'd guess it will be the same sort of price as a cambelt change so (from prices I've paid for various diesels over the years) I'd say from £120 - £180.

It really is pretty simple to do yourself. The only big problem is getting the crankshaft bolt undone and the pully off. If you drop the bumper off and remove the rad there is loads of space and the pully markings are very easy to deal with.

I've got to do my crank seal within the next 12 weeks so know exactly whats involved (had all the belts etc off when I done the head - wish I'd done the seal as a precautionary measure then)

Hth,
Rob.

[Peter09]

and the winner is...Crankshaft seal!

Had a garage near my work take a look, they gave me a quote of £156.

thought a bit on the expensive side so going to have my normal garage take a look on saturday morning.

thought i'd also ask them to do the timing belt while down there, but they just classed it as a diffrent job and priced a full quote for that too.

[wishbone]

If you want to save money I'm doing this exact job to my truck soon(100% definitely within the next 10 weeks), and I have a decent enough digital camera to take notes and vids. I can talk you through it with pics and vids. Just wait until the day I have free to do it and then keep your emails updated and phone me if you need to ask...

Rob.

You will need a decent socket set, a cambelt kit from Roughtrax, torque wrench, a breaker bar, a 3 legged bearing puller (or some bolts the correct size for the crankshaft pulley) some rtv gasket stuff, some grease. Oils, filters etc...

Forgive me if I've missed anything - it is late..

Rob.

I'd say drive down here but the diesel would cost more than the repair !!

[wishbone]

....

[NiftyNev]

a 3 legged bearing puller (or some bolts the correct size for the crankshaft pulley)

Do not use this type on a Harmonic Balancer Only remove by pulling on the centre section.

Nev

[wishbone]

Do not use this type on a Harmonic Balancer Only remove by pulling on the centre section.

Nev

When I did my head I put a new HB on so I didn' t need to worry about about that.

I guess I'll have to fab something to do it properly. Couple of bolts and some bar should do it.. I could make up a couple and post the bits up to Peter.

Rob.

[NiftyNev]

I guess I'll have to fab something to do it properly. Couple of bolts and some bar should do it.. I could make up a couple and post the bits up to Peter.

Rob.

Good idea. 72mm centre to centre for the holes and 8mm bolts.

Nev

[Chris QTown]

same problem here (i cant win atm) so im about to get in there and take a look, fingers crossed its just the rocker cover gasket leaking down...