Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Maintenance owned by a leaky front cover seal

well...went to change my oil today. regular 5000 mile interval. finished everything up and pulled the drain pan out from under the car. thought to myself " self, that doesn't look like very much oil." went to poor the contents of pan into my used oil container. container is graduated so i can see just how much oil is being added to it. only added 4 quarts to the container!! i got to pokin around and found the culprit, leaking front cover gasket on the backside near the altenator. thank god for mobil 1! as of now, i am not aware of any enine damage. car ran like a champ this morning. i was driving it pretty hard too prolly would have takin a little easier had i known that there was only 4 qts in there!!! hopefully there will be no death tick here in the next couple of days i guess i will be doing the 3 liter sooner rather than later

I've had a few 2.5L's that were leaking from the dip stick tube. The tube had actually popped out of the hole in the block allowing oil to blow right out. The first time I ran across this I thought it was a front cover or seal because of where it was dripping, but further inspection showed that it was coming from the dip stick tube hole and blowing down along the front cover, driping off of the back edge. I've since had atleast two others with the same problem. Easy to fix, but I have no idea why it would happan to begin with .

Is there an O ring around the tube? It is hard to see the base of the tube. I would think the tube couldn't pop out because it is bolted further up the engine.

would the dipstick tube make a buring oil smell?

oh yeah, i'm owned by a lot more stuff than this.. but i know that these are gaskets

There is a couple of o rings at the bottom of the dip stick tube. The tube is bolted to the cylinder head, which is why I find it strange that it would pop out of the block. My thought is that it happens during service like tranny work or head work. I know one of the ones that I've had that had the tube out had a new tranny in it, but I can't say for sure about the others.

The dip stick tube it's self will not make a burning oil smell, BUT the oil will blow out of the hole and drip on to the a/c compressor heat shield and then drip on to the exhaust. The oil on the exhaust is what makes the smell AND posses the posibility of an engine fire.

The oil pressure sensor in this area can also leak and drip oil on exhaust pipe, etc.

Bob

there is also an oil seperator between the heads underneath the lower intake. it has two tiny bolts holding it on and they work lose letting the gasket push out. the oil then builds up in the valley and will eventually run down the front of the engine and look similer to the front main or timing cover leak. I spoke to Terry Haines about this and he said it is quite common on all duratech engines. ditch the gasket, silicone it and thread lock the crap out of it if that is your problem. If you look under the throttle body down into the valley there is a coolant hose coming straight up out ot the block. if you see any oil around or behind that then youve found the culprit. clean the uim and lim while your at it.

Yep, the oil separator is a pain in the but to replace the gasket. You can't take the separator out, it is stuck between the cylinder heads. You have to take the two bolts out, lift up slightly and fish the gasket out and fish the new one in --- what a dumb design......

Bob