My 22R now has about 800 miles on the new rebuild, and has sprung (another) new leak. It's oil this time and seems to be coming from the rear of the timing chain cover, behind the heater pipe that connects on the driver's side.

When I traced it there I realized that the shop that did the machine work for the rebuild did not replace the bolt that goes through the tab on the block and into the timing cover. I'm surprised it went that far before deciding to leak.

My first thought was timing cover warpage due to the missing bolt. I thought maybe loosening and re-torquing the timing cover bolts in the correct order may have an outside chance of fixing the leak. Anyone ever have any experience with this? Am I that far off with my warpage theory?

 

Here's to attention to detail... Hopefully they didn't leave out anything more important.

If it was badly warped it would have leaked prior to 800miles, you're just missing a bolt . Try slathering up the bolt in sealant and tightening it into place. If that doesn't work you'll have to pull the cover and reset it.