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YOUR RESEARCHOil leak help!
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Clean whole area
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
I have cleaned the whole area with degreaser and left over night..
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
Burning oil at that location, my first thought was spark plug tube and seals, I changed them out with new tubes and seals.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
Used tube and seals from pelican parts, and brought the Porsche grease for $40 to lube them
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Suggestion
Those bolts are very lightly torqued (I think around 7.5 to 9 ftlb but please check).
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Suggestion
My guess is that something else is leaking oil in that region, and capillary action is probably responsible for it running around the perimeter of the exhaust manifold.
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Suggestion
Since it leaks when it's running, you might clean everything up as much as possible, back it onto Rhino ramps, CAREFULLY start the car ensuring it's in neutral, and use your cell phone video camera to try to see the source of the leak (I wouldn't crawl under a running car no matter how certain it's in neutral - I have an unreasonable fear of being crushed under my car).
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1999 Porsche 911 996. This has been killing me. I have an oil leak at the base of exhaust manifold. Burning oil at that location, my first thought was spark plug tube and seals, I changed them out with new tubes and seals. Still same issue, my cam covers are dry and I can't find it leaking anywhere else. Been searching all different forums and no luck. Please help. I attached picture, this only on the passager side. Drivers side is dry.
Did I messed up the install? Used tube and seals from pelican parts, and brought the Porsche grease for $40 to lube them
Is there a gasket blown in that area? Exhaust manifold gasket? I am no mechanic but that's what it appears to be to me. Maybe someone with more experience could chip in here.
Only you can answer the question of did you mess up when replacing the spark plug tube seals (o-rings).
You have to expose the bank you worked on and check your handiwork, check for signs of oil leaking from any tube.
You sure the camshaft cover is oil tight? If the oil only leaks when the engine is hot as soon as the engine is shut off the oil leak no longer has any oil supply. Because the engine is hot the oil quickly drains away from the leak source and while it will still leave a sign it takes an experienced eye to spot it.
My advice is to on the ground carefully look into the engine compartment for any leak sign from up above. You need a bright flash light and a small mirror on a stick/swivel to be able to peer into the recesses of the engine stuff.
If no leak is spotted from above the car needs to be lifted in the air and using the flash light and mirror look for leak sign. Run along all gaskets (head gasket), seals (camshaft cover) and any engine plugs, and of course the spark plugs.
I used clean white paper towels to wipe along suspected leak areas. Or I used my hand. I was looking for the tell tale signs of oil on the towel or my hand. While sometimes the oil was not enough to spot it would leave sign on the towel or my hand.
You know the leak is present. You just have to find its source.
There were no leaks or cracks on the spark tubes or the seals but i replaced them anyways. No oil in there either.. it leaks with engine is running and stops make 20min after engine is off.. I have cleaned the whole area with degreaser and left over night.. then I start in the morning and leaks at that exhaust manifold header area.. there are no leaks anywhere else. just at that base area.. Is it possible the exhaust gasket is bad? that is allowing oil to leak from there?
There is normally no appreciable oil in the exhaust stream - even if you were burning a more-than-normal amount of oil, it would be burned off by the exhaust.
Worded differently: Even if you did have a leaking header gasket, it is not the root cause for the oil you're seeing. If the car is blowing that much oil out the exhaust ports, your catalytic converter and o2 sensors are going to be shot in short order on that bank. However, the exhaust tip for that bank is going to be filthy with soot - I really think it would be obvious to you if that much oil was making it out the exhaust ports.
My guess is that something else is leaking oil in that region, and capillary action is probably responsible for it running around the perimeter of the exhaust manifold.
Cam cover leaks ARE very common - I had one on my '99 when I bought it.
Since it leaks when it's running, you might clean everything up as much as possible, back it onto Rhino ramps, CAREFULLY start the car ensuring it's in neutral, and use your cell phone video camera to try to see the source of the leak (I wouldn't crawl under a running car no matter how certain it's in neutral - I have an unreasonable fear of being crushed under my car).
Are you sure the leak is not somewhere from the cam cover? It could leak where the cover mates with the head and also, there are many holes on the cam cover for cam plugs and actuators. Have you checked all those?
There are no oil galleries anywhere close to the header (see the left header).
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I think you are right. After crawling under there I see oil in between the metal gasket and cam cover. Does anyone know where the exact bolts that hold in cam cover to the heads?
There are 20+ bolts securing the cam cover. Your first photo shows two of them. Those bolts are very lightly torqued (I think around 7.5 to 9 ftlb but please check). Also keep in mind the cover should never be removed before holding down the cams with cam lock tools because the cam cover also contains bearing journals that hold the cams. I suspect you need a cam cover reseal to fix the leak.
There is no metal gasket, or any other gasket, between the camshaft cover and the head. The camshaft cover to head seal is created by a bead of proper sealant that is then flattened out, squeezed out, to force it to spread out and fill the tiny voids in the machined surfaces of the camshaft cover and head mating surface.
That this seals the camshaft cover and the head is important for the sake of no external oil leaks, but also to ensure there are no internal oil leaks.
Oil holes through the head to provide high pressure oil to the camshaft bearings also must be sealed or high pressure oil leaks out inside/underneath the camshaft cover. There will be no oil outside the engine but vital areas, areas served by the oil that is leaking out inside the camshaft cover, are under lubed and can suffer damage from this.
One can't just slather on sealant and hope that if some's good more is better. The excess gets squeezed out from between the mating surfaces and the excess then will come loose and end up in the oil system. Some pieces get ingested by the oil scavenge pumps and broken up into smaller pieces. But some can end up in the oil sump by a more direct route and the larger pieces can -- if the application of sealant was too extreme -- possibly interfere with oil flow into the oil pick up tube. It has a wire mesh that can prevent large pieces of sealant from entering.
Even though the bolts do not require much torque they are to state the obvious critical to a good job. My info is the bolts should not be reused. New bolts are specially treated to help them seal so they do not weep oil.
My point in the above is to impress upon you how critical a job a proper (re)sealing of the camshaft cover to the head is.
