annoying oil leak
 

I have a gen 6 502. Alum heads, intake,

Replaced intake gaskets as I was getting a milkshake. Got that fixed.

When I put it back together one of the valve covers wasn't tight, and leaked a good deal of oil. Got that fixed, but I keep finding oil in the bilge. I cleaned the motor off best I could, and can not see where the oil is coming from. I have ruled out the valve covers, and intake / dist, and the back of the motor is still clean.

Its drving me nuts, having a bilge with oil in it. Oil Psi is around 70-80 at over 3500 rpms, and around 50ish at less then that. 40 at idle. High volume oil pump, and big oil lines. Oil cooler is mounted next to the motor, and its clean as well. Oil Pan bolts all seem dry too.

Any suggestions? Its not a big leak, but just enough to piss a guy off! :mad: If I have to pull the motor, I'll wait till this winter, and live with it for the rest of the summer.

Motor runs like a raped ape. :drink:

I had a big block that used to like dripping oil out of dipstick during hard run.

Thanks. It seems to be worse at higher RPMS.

Its fricking annoying, when you are an anal SOB like me.

Are the valve covers vented with pcv valves or open vents? The crankcase needs to be properly vented some times at high revs crankcase pressure gets too high and it will puke oil out of the dipstick tube. If it can't get out the dipstick tube some times it will go out the front or rear crank seal but at idle when you're looking for it it dosen't leak.

My valve cover breathers put out a fine mist of oil at high rpms. So fine you can hardly see it until it starts to drip off the bottom of things and into the bilge area. Seems like your sure it's not coming from the top so that only leaves the oilpan, front and rear main seals or an oil cooler line. My front crank seal went at one point and was getting onto the balancer, slinging it everywhere. That took a little bit to find.

You may not have a oil leak at all. You most likely have drainage holes in your engine compartment for water to drain into your bilge when washing your boat. When your boat is on the trailer, water and oil will flow the opposite direction where you can't see the oil. You clean it up and everything looks great. As soon as you put the boat in the water, the weight of the engines tilts the back of your boat lower and all that oil and water that you did not see flows back into you bilge. Making a mess.

Thanks guys.

My valve covers have hoses that go to a puke tank. No valves. I havn't checked it yet to see if its full or not, but I did drain it at the beginning of the season.

Its been so F'n hot I havn't had the desire to crawl around in the bilge.

I thought about that oil going up under the floor, and coming back when in the water, but it just keeps coming. The best i can tell is the majority of the oil seems to be at the rear of the motor. I'm not sure if its a rear seal, or if its just splashing around with the little water in there, and making a mess. I guess I'll just keep cleaning, and keeping an eye on it, till I pin point it.

Next time you take your boat out, make sure there is a little water in the bilge, then add a bunch of laundry detergent. It will splash around and help clean your bilge. It also makes it smell better.:drink: