dude im down on camaros right now, i need some help, i have a rear intake oil leak that will absolutely not go away. Ive done the manifold twice and recently installed a good used mani. still the same leak right in line with the distributor/oil pump drive. do you guys know anything at all about this mysterious leak i would appreciate it. b4 u say pcv ive checked and replaced vacuum lines pcv, and cleaned breather port. no excessive blow by either. im ****ing stumped.

also my oil pressure guage line melted on my header and proceeded to dump 50 psi of oil on my lap and engine and seat at 4 in the AM. any tips on oil stains greatly appreciated.

also my clutch master cylinder last friday blew up on me during rush hour.

also please remind me why i love camaros

 

If its coming from the between the manifold and bock try substituting the front and rear cork or rubber gaskets with a 1/4" bead of silicon gasket sealer. If its not the leaking from between the intake and block check to make sure you have the distributor gasket.

 

For the oil stains....I don't know, maybe replace the things that got oil on them...

I am not completely familiar with the V-8's, but on the V6's a major and common oil leak in that area is actually the distributor leaking oil. Maybe thats the problem?

 

yeah i checked the distributor, its dry, also i put engine oil dye in there to make sure and it for sure is coming between the block and manifold. i'm completely stumped.

 

What's there to be "completely stumped" about? It's leaking oil between the base manifold and the block....pretty easy....just means you screwed something up when you put it together. You have 2 options, take it back apart and do it right or you can try the quick and dirty method. I have done this in the past as a quick temp. fix. Basically what you do it clean the whole area with lacquer thinner and re-apply RTV over the area where it's leaking. Since it's on the back of the engine, no one will see it.

 

you know what buddy i've done this job three times on my car and countless times on others with the same 350 and something else is going on. im not going to take all that crap back apart and put it together to have it leak again. i followed alldata and any other repair advice i could get and made sure everything is straight and clean. three times in a row with a new manifold put on the last time and you're telling me i screwed up. personally i think the gap for some reason is too big maybe the block has been ground down in the past. so im going to try a rubber or cork gasket next time. im going to pull the silicone out and measure the gap and get a corresponding thickness of gasket. no where does it say in any repair or manufacturer guide to put a gasket there but i know the older 350's have these gaskets so im trying it . what have i got to lose, besides an engine.

 

Shesh, don’t get so defensive man….btw, I’m not your buddy. The reason these areas tend to be one of the more troublesome spots to seal up on a motor is because of the stack-up of tolerances of 4 parts coming together. This is the number one reason NOT to use cork or rubber gasket in there…….sometimes it works fine, but it is my experience is that most of the times it doesn’t work. If you use RTV with a rubber gasket, you stand a good chance of it squeezing out the first time the engine goes through a thermal cycle. I’ve witnessed that first hand. Again, if I were you, I would take it back apart and mock up the assembly dry and measure the gap(like you indicated). This is the first thing I always do on an install because it is the only way you know how much RTV to lay down. I also ALWAYS use UltraBlack RTV…if you haven’t tried it, I would recommend it…..that stuff is tough! Another thing I do is not allow the RTV to “skin over” as most instructions indicate to do. I have found in the past that RTV that has skinned over can cause some problems as far as creating air pockets in the bead once the manifold is placed on it. Once I place the manifold on and torque it to spec, I always take a real close look with a flashlight at the bead to see how much it has squished out. Problematic areas should stand out at this point and can be corrected before the RTV cures over.

 

Are you sure it is not leaking from where the oil pressure line comes from, if you had to replace because the line melted it is possible for that compression fitting not sealling correctly.