Hello guys,
I finally have my car running and driving well, however it has developed an oil leak in the front and a smaller one in the rear. They are both seemingly coming from the pan seals. The front one leaks a drip a second and the rear one drips once every day or two. I just re-replaced the seal on the front but after one drip free hour it started leaking again. I'm thinking about ditching the cork gasket on there for a felpro 1 piece gasket. Would this solve my issues do you think? I'm running a pcv valve on one valve cover and a breather on the other if it makes a difference. Thanks for the help in advance!

 

You sure it's the oil pan?

Is the smog pump gone?

 

I did remove the smog pump on the engine...does that have something to do with it you think? And i'm not positive, but it's pooling up in the seal area and it does not appear to be dripping from the front main seal.

 

felpro one-peice worked well for me

 

On my L82, I had an oil leak occur after a few wot runs and found out that I didnt have a bolt hole blocked off by the mechanical fuel pump mount. May wanna double check, cause I had the exact same leak locations and oil all over the bay on the passenger side.

 

Yes, now that you mention it, in fact I do. Come to think of it, that could be why I brought it up in the first place.



Put a bolt in this hole right here. 3/8" std thread, about ½" or ¾" with a washer under it AT MOST long, with a drop of silicone on the threads.

But of course, you want to know why... so, before you put the bolt in, LOOK into the hole; and observe, the fuel pump rod. Or, if you don't have a mech fuel pump, and depending on your specific block casting, observe instead, perhaps, .... the crankshaft.

 

You don't say haha

I just looked at my engine and it has a bolt in there currently. I don't know how the Camaro engines were set up, but i'm using an L83 engine and the smog pump just sat on top of the water pump. Any other thoughts? Below the circled bolt hole, that hole doesn't have a bolt in it? Does that go into the oil channel as well? And thanks for the help thus far guys.

 

No it doesn't. Just an accessory mount hole.

 

Doesn't matter what "L" #, or what sheet metal the block was wrapped in at birth; SBCs (that have the FP provision... some of the ones from 90 or so on up don't) all are like that.

But if your block has a bolt in the circled hole, then it's not the leak. OTOH, since fixing that one is FREE and only takes a few seconds, it's always worth a look, when there's a mystery oil leak on the front of the block.

BTW, those holes are actually the ENGINE MOUNT holes, in SBCs before 58. That's when the familiar ones on the sides of the block got added. They just left em there and used em for accessories instead, in later blocks.

 

Dangit...oh well. There goes a simple solution haha.

Huh. That mounting bracket thing is pretty interesting, guess you learn something everyday. Any other simple ideas I could look for before I have to start digging into stuff? I can't really imagine a brand new front pan seal would drip 1-2 drips a second, it seems like it's gotta be something else...