ranched

So recently I did a timing belt replacement, I had a small oil leak prior to this but upon starting back up the leak was MUCH worse.

I feel the whole story should be told to get a good picture of what has happened.

I was filling up one day and decided to check the oil while the gas was pumping since it had been leaking on the truck I had recently purchased. It looked very low so I put in two quarts and kept driving thinking I would do a change soon anyways. I was out in the country and a long way from home when the engine started to sound like it was dry which confused me because I had just put oil in. Well after another few minutes the truck died and would not start back up. I would later come to find out that it was not anywhere near as low as I thought.

I had the truck towed home where I found that I could still turn the crank by hand and that alleviated my fears of a seized engine. After doing some yotatech searching and reading, I found that my distributor was not turning so I had a broken timing belt. I did my homework, readied myself and built a crank pully tool. I went slow and bagged and labeled everything and it went smoothly.

Prior to starting it up I drained the oil so I could add new stuff and be sure of what was in there. When about 7 quarts came out I was very surprised. So I put in the 4.5 quarts that the manual calls for and installed a new filter(non-dealership if that makes a difference).

During the timing belt change I was thinking about the oil leak and replaced the front main seal because everything near it was covered in oil and dirt so I was guessing that was where the leak was. I was thinking about doing the cam seals while in there too but near the cams looked dry and I plan on doing a rebuild in a couple months so I just left it at the front main and reassembled.

After the reassembly and start up the engine sounded fine but the oil leak was now much worse. It used to be a drop every few minutes and now its a drop every few seconds. The location of the leak is the front passenger side and its somewhere above the level of the ac compressor because it is running down its sides and coming off the bottom. At first I thought it might have been power steering fluid because it is right above there but I checked and all connections to the power steering system are good. I considered a head gasket leak but I am totally unfamiliar with these so don't know enough to correctly diagnose it. Looking back, it would have been a REALLY good idea to have changed the cam seals while I was in there to rule that out but hindsight is always 20/20.

Any thoughts on what this might be before I go back to change the cam seals which I already ordered?

rworegon

Valve cover gasket?

z31freakify

if it comes from the top it's either valve cover gasket or cam seal

Team420

you didnt say what year/model, but I'll assume its the rig in your sig....

I would say valvecover gasket, or its your power steering pump reservoir. Theres an o-ring in there that has causes many leaks in my rigs....

ranched

Thanks everyone, I'll take another look at the power steering system and change the valve cover gaskets while I change the cams seals. I was needing to take the intake plenum off anyways since I'll have to change my knock sensor pigtail. That should be a solid day of wrenching!