Ok my battery is grounded to the block.. and before me the car has sat for seven years w/o being started.. it might have been drivin a little before me though because after the seven years a guy bought it.. did some work.. then sold it to me.. anyway I wonder if a seal or something is leaking.. the bolt that holds in the ground for the battery was TOTALLY covered in crap.. very very thick.. anyway.. shot of pb blaster.. and turn.. and it comes off.. not to mention plenty of small chunks of black greasy crap falls off it.. anyway I clean offf the bolt.. the negative battery cable and the area on the block it screws into pretty good and screw it back in.. drive it to work and back.. and the next night I was looking things over.. and now there is some (very very little) black grease like stuff on it again.. its a tiny bit but I don't see how any could of gotten on it so quickly.. so my question is.. is something leaking somewhere.. this stuff on the bolt looked like it was fresh.. not fallen off of another part of the engine (ie still liquid like and not solid and chunky)... and if a seal or something is broken.. I don't have the means to fix something like that right now.. how long will it last?... when it goes what will happen... will the engine split in two and the hamsters will escape or what?.. i'll rebuild this all later but I want to pin down some problems now..

 

edit: disregard, smoking some crck for that first response

 

You'd really have to clean the engine to find a leak. You could find one of those do-it-yourself power washer car washes; or, buy the engine cleaner in a can. Once the motor's clean, you'll have an easier time of finding an oil leak. You could also use baby powder as a cheap leak tracer... but that's usually for coolant or trans fluid, don't know how it would work for dark engine oil. Sprinkle the powder around the area. A leak will show up as a "run" in the powder. But like I said that trick is mainly for an antifreeze leak...

And most engine leaks are okay; just keep the oil level from dropping in the engine and the hamsters will stay inside. Some guesses? Timing chain cover to block seal, front crank seal, valve cover seal, intake manifold seal. Some of these things (valve cover) would be easy to fix... some are a complete bitch (chain cover to block seal)- just keep the oil level up. Let us know if you find the leak?

Is the cable covered in gunk? Maybe the trans cooler lines (for automatic trans only) are leaking at the radiator, and trans fluid is running along the negative cable and stopping at the engine ground bolt.