I have been chasing an engine oil leak for a couple months on my 95, 5.2 L, base, automatic. It leaks a couple teaspoons to a tablespoon a day, dripping from the bottom, front of the bell housing. I ignored it for a couple years but got bored one day. I am 70, retired, work very slowly, and ‘ponder’ at lot. So far I tried:

oil pressure switch
rear main seal (twice, I thought I may have done something wrong the first time).
intake manifold gasket

Still leaks. My only idea left is the distributor o-ring.

Anyone have a bright idea?

 

Valve cover gaskets?

Oil leaks can be really creative. They drip from one spot, but, are actually leaking somewhere you would never expect. Might not hurt to throw some dye into the oil, drive it for a bit, then hit it with a UV light, and see where it is REALLY coming from. (assuming it's not someplace you simply can't see. )

 

An alternative is to clean the motor off very, VERY well; let it dry; then hose it down with the cheap foot powder in a spray can from your discount house.

Start the motor up; wait for the oil to start showing up; then follow the tell back to the leak.

But yes, valve cover gaskets were ALWAYS a weak spot on LA motors, and even with the extra clamping holes, there's evidence that they leak still on Magnum motors.

RwP

 

I did replace to valve cover gaskets too. No luck.

 

I think I’ll put in a distributor o-ring. If that doesn’t do it, I’ll try UV dye or foot powder. The engine is pretty clean but it is hard to see back behind the distributor.

 

I replaced the distributor o-ring. Still leaked. I added the UV dye to the oil, which I should have done long ago. It is leaking either from the rear main seal, or from the back of the oil pan, around the curve. I thought I could use a small art paint brush and paint some RTV around that curve in the oil pan. I took off the starter and the sheet metal plate on the front of the bell housing. There is not enough space to paint RTV up there, around the back of the oil pan without getting it all over the place.

So, I have resigned myself to just live with the leak. I have to admit defeat. It has won. I have lost. I’m not taking the oil pan off a third time.

 

How about the oil pressure sender at the back of the block near the distributor? That can come apart and weep oil. You'll need a special socket to pull it out. When you pull the part have a look at the part number and see if it has an "AB" at the end. That is the latest part number.

Oops saw you replaced that. Forget it sorry!

 

I just replaced my crankshaft seal and filled her up with oil and coolant. But when I started her up oil started just pouring on the ground but the only place I saw evidence of where it could be leaking from was the oil filter area.
Checked the oil filter which seemed fine although quite a bit of oil did come out when I removed the filter.
Clogged oil filter maybe forcing oil to go up and out of the truck?
Im open to any help/suggestions!

 

I found the source of the leak. I had to drop the transmission for a different problem. I took off the drive plate and saw that oil was leaking from the oil pan, where it curves around the seal cap. I cleaned it well and put some rev in there. No leak so far.

 

Surprisingly my problem turned out to be my oil filter all along. Blew the damn gasket on the filter. The gasket swelled and came loose. New oil filter fixed it