[livinlegend]

my car has a klze in it. i am having trouble with an oil leak in the left rear (passenger side) of the engine bay. i cant tell where it is coming from. it only leaks when the car is running and has warmed up. it stops as soon as the engine is shut off. also, after a while it eventually starts to drip onto the exhuast piping in the vicinity of a funny s bend and begins to smoke. i cant see it from above because of a black plastic housing or below because the oil is coming down. i did some researching and i thought it was the oil pressure sending unit. but, unless I misinterpreted it or the thread is mistaken the position of the unit is in the front of the engine bay close to the oil filter. does anyone i have an idea of where it is coming from? i hope i have given enough info.

 

[agiatrix]

Maybe the rear valve cover gasket is THAT bad that it's leaking outside the engine?
Have you check the spark plug wells and wires for oil leakage?

 

[livinlegend]

no i have not.

 

[agiatrix]

Give it a shot and let us know.

 

[livinlegend]

hang on I am outside and I am going to remove the plugs now.

 

[livinlegend]

looks like someone borrowed my ratchet extension. i cant remove the plugs right now to inspect them but there is no oil residue in the wells. completely dry

 

[NickR]

(You are right that it can't be the oil pressure sending unit; it's on the front on the V6).

Even if the plug wells are dry, you might still have a leak from the rear valve cover gasket, right at the rear, just above the exhaust headers. Though it's not normal for it to leak that much. Normally just a slow drip onto the headers. If it is the rear of the rear vcg, you won't be able to see it very clearly. Run your fingers underneath the valve cover, and see if they come up oily (try it on the front of the front vcg first, so your fingers learn what to feel for).

 

[livinlegend]

thanks, i'll give that a try. karma for both of you.

 

[Fastest95PGT]

The rear VCG gets my vote as well. :tup: If there's oil in the spark plug holes or not, doesn't matter... the gasket around the outside can leak as well.

 

[livinlegend]

okay, i have been on a 12 hour, 7 days a week schedule so I have not had the chance to update you guys. thanks for the suggestions so far. however, below the rear vcg is dry. if you look at the back left of the engine there is a large bolt head about 4-6 inches below the rear vcg. there is also a very small black line that coonects to the base of where this bolt is connected. it appears as though the leak is coming from somewhere there but i can't see its' origin. i dont want to take off the im and rear vc without knowing where the leak is from.

i am a novice mechanic but, i am confident; with the help of the hayne's manual and marking each part i remove, i can disassemble and reassemble whatever i have to in order to find the leak. my plan is to spray a healthy dose of degreaser back there, let it dry, and make sure i can see no oil. then i will run the engine until it starts to leak. from there i will remove the im, and rear vc, and whatever else i need to in order to identify the leak. in theory, i should be able to trace the oil to where it is leaking because the outside of the engine should be clean from using the degreaser.

is this a good idea? is there anything behind, beside, or below the engine that i should lubricate after I use the degreaser?

 

[dsr30]

it is a good idea, that's what i'd suggest, there shouldn't be anything for u to lubricate.

 

[livinlegend]

Okay for everyone's info I decided to take the car to a mechanic shop as I have finally gotten off of my job's demanding schedule. It turns out on the rear valve assembly there is a plug for the camshafts that should be there that was missing according to the mechanic. Does that sound right to anyone? Does anyone know what this item is and it's part number? To those who helped previously I believe I gave everyone karma. If you did not recieve karma let me know and I'll give it.

 

[Fastest95PGT]

There is a plug on the outside of the rear head (timing belt side) at the end of the cams. If that plug were to fall out, oil quite possibly would come out (I'm not sure how much).

Coincidentally, a friend of mine had his fall out on the front head and oil went EVERYWHERE. Don't have a clue how it fell out as he never touched that head, but it did.. :shrug: So that's quite possibly what happened to you.

p.s. I didn't get any karma yet that I can see.

 

[livinlegend]

karma given Fastest95PGT. i have not touched mine either but it came out. it only leaks when the car has run for a while and the car gets warm. i stopped driving it because of the leak. i am curiuos about your signature though. i am interested in putting a turbo on my ze but i thought i would have to beef up the internals and lower the compression ratio. i thought that i could run 5 psi of boost safel on the car but everywhere on this site i see that most agree the ze does not respond well to boost. all i want to run is 5psi of boost. i am interested in your setup.

 

[Fastest95PGT]

If you want to discuss my setup, PM me or start a thread and send me the link so others can benefit from the discussion that's not an off topic from the thread title.

However, I will say that it's not that the ZE does not respond well to boost, it's that it responds too well to boost. The more power you make, the more stress on the rods. Also, we have the ZE valvetrain issue to breaking valve spring retainers so that shortens the lifespan of the motor as well (I have nearly 56k abused miles on my ZE though so far by me in the US without a problem yet). But long story short, if you tune it properly, you can get about as much power out of a ZE as you can out of a DE, just on less boost.

 

[Goatcrapp]

are you certain its motor oil? the power steering goes in through the back passenger side, as well... and both my mx6's and a few buddy's 6's have ATF in the PS system (although i've seen some spec'd with clear ps fluid. dbl check to be sure.)

if its the red atf, it can be easily mistaken for reg. oil, depending on how dirty everything is back there.

 

[Fastest95PGT]

Judging by how fast it's described as leaking, I'd think a change in PS would be noticed pretty quick.

 

[Goatcrapp]

this is true... that's what i get for replying without reading the whole thread lol.

 

[Fastest95PGT]

You would think a moderator would know better. :shrug:







n00b

 

[62sick]

I had that same plug come loose on a road trip. I checked my oil and went onto the freeway, 150 miles later I stopped and heard a loud ticking, I didnt even have oil on the dipstick, so yes you can lose that much oil very fast out of that plug when the engine is running.