I just noticed this today on my 3.1, was changing my cap and rotor and had a flashlight pointed down there where the distributor went into the engine. there was a small pool of oil there, is this normal on these engines? is there a gasket back there that needs replacing?

thanks

edit; 3.1 not 3.8, getting ahead of myself

 

It's your distributor O-ring that needs to be replaced .

 

And replace it as soon as you possibly can. Soon it will start to not leak, but flow out of there, and then you have quite the mess on your hands... unfortunately, I know from experience

 

crap that doesnt sound easy to replace. its not covered in my Haynes manual is it? i'll have to look it up later. u have to pull the distributor? i dont have any experince with that yet, what is the basic procedure?

 

1. Disconnect Battery ground cable

2. Remove distributor cap and wires going to distributor.

3. Mark the position the rotor is facing

4, Remove distributor hold down bolt

5. Pull distributor. As it is coming out the rotor is going to rotat counter clockwise. Mark the spot where the rotor turns to.

6. Replace O-ring. Add distributor gasket for a SBC if you desire.

7. Reinstall distributor. Line rotor up with the mark you made in step 5. If all goes well, when the distributor is fully seated, the rotor will now line up the mark you made in step 3.

8. Hook up wires and distributor cap

9. Hook up battery

10. Double check timing if necessary

 

ive also seen the 2.8 distriubutoirs break right where the oring grove is. check it to makes sure. the car will run fine but leak oil.

 

I encountered that when pulling my distributor because it was bad. There is a minor coating of oil under the distributor on the base of the rear of the engine. After many heat cycles, the distributor O ring shaft seal will start to become hard and brittle, and eventually will lose its shape therefore making it leak. Mine looked like total crap, then I replaced the distributor, and a brand new O ring shaft seal came with it, no more leaks for me! By the way, does anybody know how to clean this oil up?

 

Brake cleaner

 

engine degreaser or brake cleaner and some elbow grease work quite well. Its pretty hard to get at tho.....so maybe some kind of brush?

 

Run the engine for a while; it'll burn itself off. If anybody notices there's oil back there, then they're looking at your car way too damn closely.

What's funny is the original o-ring won't feel like an o-ring. It'll feel like a hard piece of black plastic around the distributor shaft! You won't be able to flex it off, either, it'll snap. When it does snap, try bending it backwards- you'll see a million little cracks.

Spec is a "1 inch inside diameter" o-ring. Bought a bag of 5 of them for $1.50 at Pep Boys, the bag was in their hardware aisle, in a pull-out drawer that also had freeze plugs and carb return springs. The number on the bag was 64214.

 

wow tom, nice job on the details! i'll just walk right in and out of pepboys now instead of annoying the hell out of those poor part guys

its a pretty good size pool tho so its not burning up. its not like a coating of oil, u can actually see a reflection in it.

 

99% of those guys are morons anyway... there was one guy that I think was a mechanic that worked there once; he always knew what I was talking about. Now there's just idiots over there. Asked one kid for the o-ring (before I found the bag of 'em), and he actually gave me one from a box with a rebuild distributor in it!! The last time I asked for an o-ring, I bought it at a "real" parts store, they had a red box with all possible o-ring sizes behind the counter, the guy took one out, sold it to me for a quarter.

You can actually buy the box-of-o-rings from some tool places; I know for sure that http://www.jcwhitney.com has it in their catalog... for only $10, I think. But how many times do we use o-rings? Plus, you can't use normal black orings on fuel lines... they have to be "buna" or somethin' like that; they're orange colored, and resist gasoline.

 

G.M. in their infinite wisdom made a neet little cavity right there, just right to hold a puddle of oil - when they designed the engine casting. I have washed the back of my engine at a car wash - but I have less stuff to worry about getting wet than you.