well last night i finally got to change my cars oil but not before i found a problem, i used a Mobile 1 oil filter and valvoline max life, anywaysmy car has never had any problems since i bought it so this was a surprise, we poped it up on the ramps and when we got under my car was leaking oil! i was like *** NOOOOO lol, my friend & his dad are the car wizzes so i let them have a crack at it and see what was leaking, they said they were pretty certain it was the seal for the crank shaft on the inside of the car and would cost me about 10 - 15 bucks to buy a new one, well this was good news but then he told me would have to get inside the engine to replace it....now that was bad, so it turns out that i have to take it to a repair shop tomorrow for them to fix it, i hope it doesnt cost me an arm and a leg, it's leaking pretty bad, last night i decided to leave it on a nice clean parking spot " i live in apartments" and see just ho wmuch driped out, well this mornin i checked and it leaked BAD like a trail fromt he front of the car tot he back of the car. i hope this isn't something seriouse.

on a brighter note, when i took the old oil outof the car it was TERRIBLE!! i mean so bad, & the oil filter was some old a$$ no name generic brand, when i put the new oil and filter the cra ran much smoother than i expecte, and it just felt different so imhappy about that, now watch them drain it all when they replace the seal lol

 

oh yea 1 more thing, what do ya guys htink it will cost to replace it?? thanks

 

HOLD on it might be leaking from above, I had a distributator o-ring that was leaking and I thought it was the rear seal but I replace the o-ring and re-set the timing and THAT fixed my problem, see it just pumps right out under the distributator then runs down and you think you have a rear seal leaking BUT you don't.

 

the only reason a crank shaft seal would leak is because the engine bearing has worn alowing the crank to come down on to the seal.

 

awesome thanks man im about to go check it out, i just came back from a local auto repair shop that would give me the best prices, one of the guys gave it a quick look over and said it looks like the main rear, but it was coming a bit above the very bottom you can't exactly see where the leak is coming from, well anyways he said if it was the main rear it would cost about 250.00 bucks to reair, he also said it may be somehting minor like the O-Ring and would only cost me about 100 bucks to fix, well ill fidn out tomorrow and thanks again for that bit of info, anyone else have any clues?

[This message has been edited by 87_Camaro (edited September 06, 2001).]

 

If it's leaving trails like that when the car is sitting, I'd look at the oil pan gasket and the rear main engine oil seal. The distributor O ring is too high up on the engine. Gravity exists, folks. Oil doesn't flow *up* when the car isn't running.

The big thing that adds labor to the rear main is just getting to it. It has to be pressed in from the outside (no biggie) except your transmission, torque converter, and flywheel are kinda in the way.. and gotta come out to get to the seal. Lots of labor.

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'86 Camaro SC, black /w silver racing stripes
2.8l MPFI/700r4 /w special 2nd gear delete option
In search of new v8 engine & transmission, now contemplating t5 swap to get me out of this mess.
Misc Mods: Cut air box, '83 Firebird spoiler.
Performance Parts: MSD coil, Accel 8mm wires, SplitFire plugs, Gabriel hijackers.
Audio Mods: Pioneer DEH-P3000, two 12" Optimus Pro Audio subs in hand-made enclosure each powered by a 260 watt Optimus amp. Working on shaving the box for weight.
My Homepage, with pics.

 

AHA!!

i think you hit the nail on the head chief, after reading what ya said i went outside to look behind the distributor and vuala, right behind the distributor a bit lower there is a big puddle of oil, i deicded to poke at it and see if it was fresh and it was, i followed the puddle and it led all the way down to the floor, i think it is the O-Ring, man that is a sign of relief but im still not certain. is there a way i could actually get to the O-Ring to inspect it myself, or should i go to a mechanic? please answer soon thanks

oh and 1 more thing, if it was the O-Ring would it leave little puddles ont he floor or big *** ones, because my car is leaving big *** puddles if i le6t it sit long enough, well there goes all my fresh new oil



[This message has been edited by 87_Camaro (edited September 06, 2001).]

 

I had that oil leak too; wasn't big puddles, but your o-ring could be worse than ours. Sure, the pan isn't draining when the car sits, but all the oil on the "top" of the engine (under the distributor) is what drips down to the floor.

You want a "one inch inside diameter" O-ring. Pep Boys has packs of 5 in their hardware aisle, in metal drawers, by the wheel studs and carb springs and brass fittings and etc. The guy could not, for the life of him, find me a one-inch-inside-diameter o-ring. I doubt he knew what an o-ring is! I stumbled on the 5-pack a week later (after going to a real parts store); I think it was $1.25 for 5 of 'em.

A "real" parts store will have a red box of o-rings behind the counter, labeled with each diameter, and they'll probably charge you $0.35 for an o-ring.

When you pull the o-ring off the distributor shaft, it'll snap in half- bend the o-ring "backwards". You'll probably see many little cracks in the rubber; and that's what was causing the leak. My mechanic showed this to me; sure enough, he fixed my oil leak. I could've sworn my rear main was leaking; in fact, I even pulled the flexplate inspection cover, and looked at the rear seal. It was covered in oil- but I never noticed the oil was coming from above the rear seal!


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l)

 

thanks TomP, well now i am becoming a bit sceptical of it being the distributor O-ring because htis is a continuouse leak, when the cra's on it leaks, when the car's off it leaks, it leaks period, and it leaks a GRIP, if i was to let my car sit off for about 1/2 an hour by the tiem i cam back there would be a puddle about the size of a medium pizza LITERALLY... man this sucks, it's lekaing so much that i am afraid of driving it for the rest of the day ebcause i dotn want it to run out of oil and ruin my engine, wich woudl be the worst of the worst. its not the oil pan and thats for sure.

 

Maybe you have a bad valve cover gasket or intake manifold gasket.. you found oil at the top of the engine; it's gotta be coming from somewhere. Oh- you'd have to pull the distributor to get at the o-ring; the o-ring's on the distributor shaft. The Haynes manual gives a procedure on pulling/reinstalling the distributor.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l)

 

When I first got my car, I had that problem. That was the only thing that needed fixed. 2.8's are notorious for this, right?

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2.8 mpfi
My only mod: Flowmaster 40 series
check my home page for pics

 

Me 2!!!!!

 

Me 3 BUT, mine did not leak anywhere near as much as yours...but my friend had an '86 SC that leaked quite a bit out of the distributor. It is a very common problem...

 

well froma ll the reply's i got i hope it's the O-Ring, hey since theyhave to pull out the distributor etc. should i buy a double timing chain and kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

i pray to *** it's not the main rear oil seal btu from the looks of itand htey way the oil is coming out there is no telling, do you guys htink its safe that i drive the car like this? if i add what fell out befor ei drive? because this is my only car and i need it to go to work, i bought 5 quarts of oil & a oil pan to put under it, i didnt get my bonus so if it's not the O-Ring im screwed for another 3 weeks, wish me luck

 

I changed the front crank seal in my car about 2 weeks ago. All we needed was the harmonic Crank balance puller, and a set of sockets, and a good Sealer to keep it from leaking any more. The whole jook about a half an hour.

If it continues to blow out oil, check the PVC valve also and replace.

Good luck

 

i had the exact same symptoms... had the valve cover gaskets, intake gasket changed and had a worse leak then before... but it was only because the Distributor o ring was sittin rong.. so i replaced it and it was fine... in my case i had the other leaks also... but the distributor o ring was leakin heavily cus it was put in rong.. so i bet u it wil solve ur problem

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White 91 3.1 RS.
T-Tops
12" Sony XS-l1235 Bass tube powered by MTX 2120 amp. Kenwood 8015 Head unit

16" ROH Rims
Firestone Firehawks
ES Urethane Tranny Mount

 

You'd have to pull more off the engine to get at the timing chain; the chain's in the front of the engine, underneath the timing chain cover (where your lower rad hose connects to), which is under your water pump. I assume you want to rebuild stuff that you have to take out anyway? In that case, you could rebuild the distributor. A new pick-up coil is about $12, a new spark module (whether it be AC/Delco, an aftermarket "stock" unit like a Borg-Warner, or a hi-performance module like the Holley) will be $60. Personally I'd go after the Holley module. Everything on the distributor pops out really easily; you could do it yourself in a half hour. Steps:

1. Knock out roll pin of distributor gear with a hammer & punch. Pull the gear off the bottom of the distributor.

2. Pull the shaft out of the top of the distributor (the gear held it in).

3. Pry off the lock ring holding the old pick-up coil onto the distributor. Remove the old pick-up coil.

4. Unscrew the little tiny bolts holding the spark module to the base of the distributor, and remove the old module. Clean the base of the distributor where the module was with a paper towel.

5. Apply white heat-sink grease (comes with a module) to the base of the distributor, and to the metal plate on your new spark module. This is important!! The first cause of module death is heat. I bought a little extra tube of Heat Sink Grease from Radio Shack for $5 and smeared a ton on. Bolt on the new module.

6. Put the new pick-up coil on top. Put the new lock clip (included with new pick-up coil) on to hold the pick-up coil down. Plug the pick-up coil into the spark module.

7. Put a light film of lube (I used engine assembly lube) on the distributor shaft. Slide the shaft back into the distributor body.

8. Put the gear on the bottom of the shaft, and align the holes. (A new gear is $60 if you want one... I heard the price, and didn't.) Tap the roll pin back into the distributor gear with a hammer- make sure the pin gets fully inside the gear, with no edge sticking out.

The rebuild's done. Oh- wait, step 9...

9. Snap the old, flattened, plastic-feeling o-ring off the outside of the distributor body's shaft. Lube the new "one inch inside diameter" o-ring with engine oil. Roll the new o-ring onto the distributor.

The Haynes 82-92 Camaro (or Firebird) manual gives the step by step on this, and some pics. It's an easy job. The hard part of the job is getting the spark timing set. If you do have a garage do this job for you, make sure they use a new o-ring, and you might want to have them buy the Holley spark module. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you bought the module on your own, and gave it to them. (HINT: Ask for the old distributor parts. That way you know they switched 'em.) You would also be able to see the module from underneath the distributor cap; the Holley one is red. It's part # HLY-891-103 from Summit Racing, ask for Holley part #891-103 from another store.

Here's the link to the Holley unit: http://www.holley.com/HiOctn/ProdLin...A/891-103.html


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l)

 

This is a labor intensive job. DO you like the car?
Spend the money to have your timing chain & distributor rebuilt with new electric parts. I use a Chevy Small Block distributor gasket, it fits perfect & won't leak, also!!
But, that's me & I've done this job to two engines and it works great.
Tom has the skinny on what to do.
BUT Distb. rebuild is easy.
And very effective. Your car likes this type of work. Gas milage increases & so does pep.
You won't be buring down drag strips, but the ride if more fun!
Consider it & get price quotes.
I paid $50-ish for the parts delivered & I've done my own labor. Hard part, getting off balancer. ALSO replace water pump at same time. You are there!
You can call 800-995-0296 and ask for Saul, tell him Karl sent ya. He sells AC Delco stuff way less expensive. You'll need a new coil ring and new Ignition Control Modular.

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Chat Soon,
KED85
Karl
1985 Firebird 2.8 to 3.4 swap project for Smog Happy LA, CA