Ok ive been slowly working on the engine in my iroc-z and its been gettin better and better. Well this morning i took it for a drive, about 20 miles, and it managed to dump 2 and1/2 quarts of oil, it appears to be coming through one of the valve cover gaskets which i just replaced 2 days ago. But i was told it shouldnt have pushed that much up there through that without something else being wrong. So what would cause that much pressure to do that?

 

Was it leaking before the valve cover gasket replacement? What other work have you done on it that may involve access to the oiling system or areas?

If just a valve cover gasket, it might be pinched, slipped or not sealed.

 

if you have a really bad valve cover leak. lets say no gasket or missing for lets say 1-2 inches you can definitely pump that much oil out.
recheck your gaskets

 

Since ive got it, ive replaces plugs, wireset, valve cover gaskets, had to bolt the torsion (sp) bar back on because idiot before me didnt have it connected just wedged in place. Also fixing to replace the distributer cap/ rotor/ and coil, the wireset helped alot but myself and a couple others think the distributer is arking. If it was just out of place, pinched or something like that would it dump that much oil in only 20 miles? Yesterday afriend moved one of the distributer wires cause it was on a header, and it poped off the plug and didnt notice untill i tried to start it. Maybe thats what caused it to slip because of how rough it was starting?

 

check your distributor O-ring. mine started leaking, and I lost about the same from just driving around for abt. 15 or 20 mins.

 

Ok thank you i will check that as well

 

Ok found out what it was. Valve covere gasket was leaking a tiny bit but wasnt it. Theres a bolt in the bottem left (passenger side) of the engine on the front that was missing. Guess it fell out. Anyways put a bolt back in its place with thread lock and silicone on it lol. It is no longer dumping oil.

 

good job finding the leak. just remember when saying left and right side of the car it from the back looking to the front. drivers side is left passenger side is right.

 

I was kind of thinking that, which is why i stated it the way i did lol. yeah without that bolt when the engine was warmed up there was a steady small leak from there but when u got the engine up to 25000 RPM it was just shooting out from it.