MASSIVE oil leak!!!???

[bozemanbob]

This is long, but interesting. Hope you'll read it all and offer some advice! Went for a short drive the other day:

1) Start Jeep. Was -5 degrees the night before, and was perhaps only about +10 degrees when I left. No engine heater, FYI.

2) Takes a while to start. Have to pump the gas a bunch. Starts and dies. Does this about three times. This is totally normal.

3) Get it started. Warm it up for about 1 minute.

4) Hit the road. Neighborhood road is 1/2mi long at 25mph, then the next road is 45mph for three miles. Next road is 5 miles at 45-55mph.

5) About 2-1/2 miles after leaving home, I comment to my wife "Smell that strong plastic smell? Wonder what that is?" Then the smell goes away. Make mental note to myself to look under the hood when we get where we're going.

5) Reach destination. Lose traction in the icy parking lot, spin the Jeep and smack the curb smartly with the left tires, but not terribly hard. No damage, I expect.

6) Get out of the Jeep. Wife says "I REALLY smell it now."

7) Pop the hood. Oil is EVERYWHERE on the right side of the engine, backside the right fender well, etc. Oil starts just above and in front of the distributor, and covers the block back from there. The starter is gushed with oil, so is the front driveshaft, the front side of the tranny, top of tranny, side of tranny, bottom of tranny, etc. No oil at ALL on the right side of engine.

No oil leaking from the valve cover, and barely a thin film from the head gasket (This is normal. Gonna need a new head gasket next summer.) The oil filter is CLEAN - no oil on it at all.

Oil pan appears to be tight. Oil sending unit(s) appear to be tight.

8) Check the oil - none present on the stick. Add three quarts to bring it back to normal level. Start the Jeep and look for the gusher and... nothing. No oil coming out anywhere. Pressure is normal after adding oil back in.

9) Head home. When I get there I inspect the snow-covered driveway and find several (three) obvious oil drip patterns. It's very easy to discern the front driveshaft drip pattern. So it's obvious that this has been going on for some time. But everytime I drive somewhere I look under the front for oil leaks and never see more than the usual one or two drips from the oil pan plug (gotta put a gasket on that).


So my question: what the h*ll?!?!?!


I've started it once since, also when it was cold, and haven't seen any oil at all. Tried revving it when it was still pretty cold, then warming it up a while, then revving it again. And still, no oil.

I live 18 miles from work and drive on the freeway. But until I can nail this down and fix I'm not driving it anywhere.

I wonder if this is related to the cold-cold weather? Cracked oil sending unit, but the crack doesn't open up until it's warmed up? Or maybe it's only open when it's cold?

Any clues at all?

 

[Randyzzz]

Do you have access to a Black light? If you do, go to Napa and get some engine cleaner, and a bottle of oil dye. Clean off the engine, probably at a car wash since it's winter, then add the dye. Drive 20 miles or so, then in low light go over the suspected areas with the black light. The oil leak(fresh oil with dye in it) will glow bright yellow. It may take several 20 mile trips to get it to show, but don't go too far or you'll just have glowing oil everywhere.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[dcscrambler]

engine

I had something like that happen to me once it was oil coming from the dip stick tube pressure pushed the dip stick out a little then it pushed oil out of it. my problem was too much back pressure. I just taped it shut until it was rebuilt.

hope this helps
David

 

[bozemanbob]

The cause?

There's a large breather tube that exits the top of the valve cover, runs over behind the battery, then straight down until it sticks out under the vehicle. The end of the tube was completely frozen shut and covered with a huge gob of ice when the oil hemorage happened.

I now suspect that the crank case over-pressured and oil shot out from under the distributor; isn't it just a simple little o-ring that keeps the oil from coming out around that shaft anyway? That theory fits with the evidence: there was no oil any further forward or higher than the distributor, and there was no oil on the dist. cap or on the oil filter.

Couldn't have been the oil pressure sending unit, because there was oil so far forward on the block.

I haven't been able to reproduce the problem - but it's been warmer around here and the gob of ice has melted. I'm tempted to plug the tube intentionally and force the problem just to verify the theory, but I don't want a superfund site designation for my driveway.

I like the dye idea, and may do that anyway. I'm afraid the entire right side of the engine would be glowing before I got off the driveway, though!!

 

[RJCJ-8]

Sounds like you found your issue. I would be curious of plugging it to see if you can cause it to happen. Too much crankcase pressure can cause other seals and gasket to go.
The way that is routed does not sound right. If that is for the breather is should be running a filter on it. On most is should be connected to the air filter so that when is sucking in air it is not pulling in contaminants. If you cannot route it back to the air filter most parts places should carry some small filters that should fit the hole on the valve cover similar to this…

 

[BigAl]

14 years later and I have this exact problem. Weber swap, PCV to the manifold, rear breather hose to air filter. Don't like the oil in the air cleaner, going to delete hose and go with a filter. Oil is concentrated around distributor and fuel pump. Was sure it was coming from the weep hole in the pump. New pump, still oily but not as much since I held speed to 55. 214k on engine, no evidence of rebuild in paper trail with it. Might be time to get reacquainted with serious wrenching.