bad oil leak!!!!

[Hondaisdashit]

hey everybody i got this oil leak, a realy bad one and i dont know is this is the reason why ,,,,,and if it is what should i do about it. im thinkin about sealing the holes up what do ya think??

[Slice One]

unforunately im in my office and cant see pictures give me a discription of where its gonig from and il try my best to help you. but it you are leaking oil its probably a gasket. is it coming out of where the valve cover is ( the thing that says HONDA 16 VALVE) IF so it you cover gasket and they are super simple to replace just 4 nuts and a couple of vac hoses and you got that sunken ditch off there.

[Hondaisdashit]

unforunately im in my office and cant see pictures give me a discription of where its gonig from and il try my best to help you. but it you are leaking oil its probably a gasket. is it coming out of where the valve cover is ( the thing that says HONDA 16 VALVE) IF so it you cover gasket and they are super simple to replace just 4 nuts and a couple of vac hoses and you got that sunken ditch off there.

no its actualy coming out of four little holes between the valve cover and headers and therr lined up across wish you could see the pic ....im in no rush but when u get home if u could check it out and give me your best oppinion i would most appriciate it

[Slice One]

Where the header meets the Head? the top bolts?

[Hondaisdashit]

Where the header meets the Head? the top bolts?

i wouldnt say the top but right next to it like on the sides of it

[Slice One]

Ahh i see said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw,


went to a buddies laptop and looked.


If im not mistaken you put that header on there correct?

your header flange is suppose to cover those holes..........

i didnt get a good look at it but it could be that when you put the header on you tryed to reuse the gasket? or never put one back on?

give me some details

[Slice One]

see your flange isnt shaped like this^^^^ see how the gasket seals those holes?

[visualpoet]

The gasket won't cover the middle "hole", and they aren't holes anyway. They're more like casting marks or little caves; oil doesn't flow through them. (think about it, why would Honda make pil ports coming out of the side of the head into your exhaust manifold?)
Even if the gasket was covering them (like in mine below) it would still leak oil from the top since nothing is holding that in place with pressure.

Steam clean your engine at the local carwash (plenty of threads on the correct way to do this, but : cover the dizzy or avoid it, spray it down with the engine turned off and the motor relatively cool) and then start looking for the source of the leak.

[Slice One]

Well you are right about them not making them to leak. but, after you said tht the first thing that popped in my head is bad exhaust valves, if they are floating/bent oil from the head will leak down into the "caves" as you called them. and you are correct if the gasket did cover them they oil would be getting pushed throw to the muffler instead of coming out at them "caves" and onto the header.

DOES your head make loud clicking/tapping sounds?

a simple valve adjustment could fix it.

.12 in +1 intake
.10 in +1 exhaust

get some feelers and adjust away.

if its a bent valve youre screwed

[visualpoet]

Slice, don't take this wrong, but you're giving bad advice.

A bent valve will not leak oil onto the outside of the engine block. Oil only escapes the block through a bad gasket or a bad seal (unless you have a physical hole through the block, then you have other problems to worry about.) Those spots should never have oil in them. When I installed my header, they were empty, dry and clean with no passages to the inside of the head for oil to come through.
I don't mean oil would get pushed through to the muffler. I mean it would get pushed up and out of the top of the gasket (where it's not clamped down by the header flange), where it would leak all over the header. There is no way for oil to get into those except from the outside of the engine. A bent valve would let oil escape into the exhaust, but that's not the OP's problem.

If the OP has oil in those dimples, it's coming from above them. The only places above them it can come from is the valve cover gasket and the fill hole in the valve cover.

[Leung]

haha i've been here before with the same question especially after i installed my Megan racing header. i saw the same "ports" with oil in them, made a thread about them and then went to the PnP to confirm. these guys are right, that oil is probably from a leak from your valve cover gasket and they leaked into those "holes". just clean them out with a rag and some carb cleaner or something that will evaporate.

[Slice One]

Yeah I might be wrong, but i garuntee its not his valve cover i looked at the picture again ,and in order to be the valve cover gasket you would see the oil stains on the head from it leaking down to the wholes then being cooked off from the heat. and i dont see them. give the fact that his header isnt lining up right maybe the gasket ISNT sealing, and i think common sense tells you that if the gasket isnt sealing it, oil could be getting pushed up and out the top of the header into the wholes as well threw the exhaust system. I use my head when i deduce things. i dont talk out my ass. not to say u are. plus you can see his gasket on the cover and its looks sealed. so like i said the first thing that popped in my head was bad valves, you saying its NOT possible makes you the one giving bad advice. just because when you took your header off thoughs holes were clean doesnt mean that my idea is wrong. and if im not mistaken the first thing i said it could be was the valve cover gasket.

[visualpoet]

Wow, where to start.

Yeah I might be wrong, but i garuntee its not his valve cover i looked at the picture again ,and in order to be the valve cover gasket you would see the oil stains on the head from it leaking down to the wholes then being cooked off from the heat. and i dont see them.

It is most likely (99% probability) his valve cover. You don't see wet oil on the head because it's been cooked off (that's what makes the head that ugly brownish black color)

It should look like this or better:



His (car's) head is filthy and oil stained, which means cooked on oil from a leak. Once it's been cleaned up, you'll be able to see the oil leaking down (like it is on the right side, under the bracket).

give the fact that his header isnt lining up right maybe the gasket ISNT sealing, and i think common sense tells you that if the gasket isnt sealing it, oil could be getting pushed up and out the top of the header into the wholes as well threw the exhaust system.

Common sense tells you that there isn't any oil in the exhaust to leak out. If he had this much oil in the exhaust, it would have shut the engine down a long long time ago and it would be literally dripping out of his muffler. Not to mention the horrible exhaust leak noise he'd have.

I use my head when i deduce things. i dont talk out my ass. not to say u are. plus you can see his gasket on the cover and its looks sealed. so like i said the first thing that popped in my head was bad valves, you saying its NOT possible makes you the one giving bad advice.

I'm not going to address the talking out of your ass comment, but again; a bent valve will not cause oil to leak outside the engine. It doesn't have anything to do with the outside of the engine. If he had a bent valve and it was leaking so much oil that it came out of the exhaust like this, the car would blow HUGE clouds of blue smoke when he tried to start it, and it wouldn't run when he let go of the key, it would spit, sputter and then choke to death on the oil in the cylinder. And again the horrible exhaust leak noise.

And it is impossible for a bent valve to leak oil outside the head. Where does the valve penetrate to the outside of the head in order to let the oil leak out when it's bent? Show me and I'll start a thread posting my apology for doubting your automotive expertise.

just because when you took your header off thoughs holes were clean doesnt mean that my idea is wrong.

Correct, the design of the oil passages in the head and block are what make your diagnoses incorrect. Those holes don't go anywhere, they don't penetrate into the head at all so nothing can come out through them.

and if im not mistaken the first thing i said it could be was the valve cover gasket.

Well that's correct anyway!

I've been building racing tuning whatever you call it for over 25 years. I know a little something about the basics of automotive maintenance.

[Leung]

it might not be gushing out right now in that picture but it was probably from a previous leak... and really who removes their exhaust manifold to clean up any oil leaking down? if they are like me, they would have just wiped up any oil leaking at the time when the VC gasket was replaced.


Jon is right that those holes don't go anywhere... when i made my thread a while ago about the same "holes" i went to the PnP the next day and put my finger into those "holes" of an Ax engine with the exhaust manifold missing, Low and behold, my finger went no where but into a puddle of oil. now i don't normally go sticking my finger(s) into holes so i don't recommend it unless that's what she wants.

[visualpoet]

If you look at the right side, where the VC and the head come together, you can see there is oil trapped in there, which means it's leaking. if it wasn't wet, it wouldn't look wet.

hondaisdashit - get a new VC gasket, and replace yours, it's easy. Might as well do yout spark plug tubes while you're at it. You'll probably get them with the VC gasket.