apache1960

Hey all, 86 with manual trans started a major leak very quickly, I assumed it was the rear main seal but there is really no oil at the bottom of the bell housing and no oil on the passenger side but near and above the oil filter there is a bunch of oil. I see there are bunch of hoses, wires and sensors so just wondering has anyone had this same issue? It's a major leak, I ended up having to put 1 gallon of oil to get 30 miles back to home.

Is this a common thing or a one off problem? Also, there is now oil at the rear and top of the engine, I already found the thread about leaks at the back of the intake manifold, it's low and to the drivers side of the engine as seen in the pics.

s carter

I see you have the oil cooler option. If the leak is coming from the cooler area spin off the filter and a long tube may come off with it if the cooler mount has come loose. Not a big deal remove it from filter make sure rubber seal is still in good shape between cooler and block reinstall and tighten down.

apache1960

Thank goodness for Google and Youtube! I found the gasket between the oil cooler adapter and the block. Just in case I ordered the oil pressue sensor and oil temp sensors, I am guessing it's the ceramic around the sensor plug, that seems to be another common cuprit I was just using the wrong search terms to find the problem. Turns out it's a pretty common occurance so hopefully I can keep nursing it along until I have to replace the clutch and rear main seal, THAT is a big job and I don't have a garage right now.

Thanks for the response and advice!

erikszr1

best bet clean off the entire engine especially where you see it leaking and just carefully look with a flashlight, its extremely difficult to find a leak with oil everywhere.

apache1960

Actually it turned out to be the oil cooler adapter gasket or O ring, $5.49 at Oriellys, it was dried out and split in 3 places and pretty much just crumbled once I took it off. Lesson learn, from Nascar to Nasa it's a $5 part that ruins the race, day or mission. When it goes all the oil get drained out very quickly, no lights no warning, oil pressure and temp was fine but as soon as I saw the cloud of smoke following me I switched to the oil pressure.

Also, replace the oil pan gasket with the one piece one, it was about another half hour job, maybe another half hour cleaning it up and getting the old gasket off, no more leaks, the bottom of the engine is clean as a whistle. Another note, keep the car in neutral to be able to spin the engine to get the front lobe on the crankshaft out of the way, the pan then comes out easy, kind of hard to see but once you get the pan loose you can shine a flashlight inside and see the position of the crank and turn the engine over by hand. The plastic studs hold everything in place to slide the pan back, bolt it up, way better than the old stuff.

I also highly recommend anyone with an 84-96 to replace it next time you change your oil, for the 86 at least is part

ACDelco Oil Filter Adapter Gasket - 88893990

s carter

I too had the paper gasket failure on my pickup always something dumb and cheap. I'm just bummed that I forgot to put it in my previous post got called away

apache1960

Have you had to replace your rear main seal? I thought I had the 2 piece which would have been a piece of cake with the oil pan off but 86 is the first year of the 1 piece. Anyway, so seeing what other seals look like it's probaly a good time to replace the clutch and do the main seal but also I have learned my lesson, "if it's not broke, don't fix it" most aftermarket stuff is junk and fails pretty quickly. I went through 3 AC compressors to get a good one, I ordered an AC Delco and it came with a tag "Made by Murray" which was who made the first 2 that 1 had a bad coil, the other just didn't build any pressure as if it had no piston rings.

s carter

I am a true believer that if you need to remove it to get to something else with in reason of cost or rate of failure change it, now your car is an 86 so it's reasonable to say your not on your factory delivery clutch. I like most mechanics do or should a either say rear main is included or recommend to do it while it's only a screwdriver blade and a install tool away.
so I would say your main seal is not original.
So new clutch seal should be done too same time.
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