need help! oil leak, stranded at my dorm room!

[texas69truck]

info on the truck first, it got a 92 350, with th350. now for the problem, Ive had a small rear main seal leak for awhile, atleast thats what ive suspected and have been told by acouple mechanics(which i dont trust to much). today i went out to the parking lot to wire in my license plate lamp and started the truck up and moved if forward about a foot. about 30 min later i started it again. i get back under the truck and see two big oil spills from the 2 places where it started up, with a trail of dots going from one spot to the other. my first thought was i blew the rear main seal. i took the dust cover off and the only spot with oil comming down is on the oil filter??? i dont know to much about engines and im hoping its not the rear main seal. and i def. dont want to be doing this in a dorm parking lot. any ideas of what it could be or what i need to do? sorry for the long post but ive used the search for the past two hours and found alot of usefull info on what to do to replace a rear main seal but didnt find any problems like mine. thanks in advance for the replys.
Travis

[Draggn66]

If the only place you see oil is the filter first I'd see if was still tight. I've seen a couple loosen up a bit over time. Then after making sure you still have oil in it I'd start the engine and look to see if I can see where it's leaking from. If it's making puddles that quick you should be able to track it. Good luck

[dmec]

you say the oil is around the oil filter. check the seal on the oil filter and also the stud it screws onto. i know a guy that ruined an engine because of a cracked oil filter stud.

[hvychve]

I agree , with above, but can elaborate a tad, I would wonder if you had an oil cooler , this is usually mounted under the oil filter , its usually got a pair of hoses that run from this and up to radiator or remote filter, being that your filter is mounted on the engiine block ? or oil filter adapter? there are pressure points in this area , so my advice would be to go get you a couple cans of brake clean and spray it down the best you can, brake clean dries quicker than eng. degreaser and seems to work well without having to spray it off, like you do with engine degreaser, there is whats call an oil dye, usually comes in a couple ounce bottle, but you really need a black light to pick up its color, I am going to guess that with the amount of leak you have , it should not be too difficult to pin down. After its all clean , or shall we say a bit cleaner , not so wet with fresh oil, start it up and climb under with a flash light and try and spot where its pouring from , Note, make sure its full on oil in crankcase first. The oil pressure switch would be the very first place I checked, this is a sendor that sends a signal to either your oil light or oil pressure gauge, which ever you have , and this also is a pressure point and very common for leaking, this is a cheap part to replace, you just need to know if its got a gauge or a light before ordering , and if the gauge goes to 60 psi or 80 psi, or etc. so clean, and climb under to find where its coming from, if its rear main, I believe these years carry a one piece rear main seal, and if thats the case, you will need to remove transmission to access and replace, good luck and keep us informed.

[TONE]

Another Commonly Over Looked Simple Thing Is Making Sure The Old Oil Filter Gasket From The Previous Oil Filter Is Not Still On There, Thus Having Two (the Old And The New) Oil Filter Gaskets On Your Oil Filter. This Will Cause Oil To Leak Out Around The Filter Too. Good Luck!!

[GREASEMONKEY72]

with whats been said, but my first thing would be to check the filter and just make sure you dont run it out of oil, and im sure you know this but just remember you cant check the oil while its running cause it wont read right

[68C15]

Originally Posted by hvychve

I agree , with above, but can elaborate a tad, I would wonder if you had an oil cooler , this is usually mounted under the oil filter , its usually got a pair of hoses that run from this and up to radiator or remote filter, being that your filter is mounted on the engiine block ? or oil filter adapter? there are pressure points in this area , so my advice would be to go get you a couple cans of brake clean and spray it down the best you can, brake clean dries quicker than eng. degreaser and seems to work well without having to spray it off, like you do with engine degreaser, there is whats call an oil dye, usually comes in a couple ounce bottle, but you really need a black light to pick up its color, I am going to guess that with the amount of leak you have , it should not be too difficult to pin down. After its all clean , or shall we say a bit cleaner , not so wet with fresh oil, start it up and climb under with a flash light and try and spot where its pouring from , Note, make sure its full on oil in crankcase first. The oil pressure switch would be the very first place I checked, this is a sendor that sends a signal to either your oil light or oil pressure gauge, which ever you have , and this also is a pressure point and very common for leaking, this is a cheap part to replace, you just need to know if its got a gauge or a light before ordering , and if the gauge goes to 60 psi or 80 psi, or etc. so clean, and climb under to find where its coming from, if its rear main, I believe these years carry a one piece rear main seal, and if thats the case, you will need to remove transmission to access and replace, good luck and keep us informed.

that pretty much covers it.

[Gray Ghost]

Places to check first....valve cover.....oil sender....distributor....manifold [if you have the end gaskets installed especially...I've had them all leak on a few different Chevys. The dye helps a ton.

[Bowtie001]

Buffalo Elk and hvychve had a good point. The oil pressure sender on a SBC is directly above the oil filter, so it may be leaking there and trickling (spraying) down. Make sure the oil is full, start it and crawl underneath to watch - if it's the sender or the filter it will be easy to spot because of the high pressure.

[texas69truck]

thanks for all the replys, im heading to the parts store to go get more oil and try and see what it is. the oil filter is tight. i have no oil cooler. and everything up top is dry, i had problems with the intake and heads leaking when i bought the truck and have redone the whole top end. ill keep yall posted as to what the problem is.

[Bowtie001]

Just had a thought. You didn't mention if your oil pressure gage was mechanical or electric (at least I didn't read it, forgive me if I am mistaken). The oil pressure sender is obviously only used in electric applications. I've never worked with one, but I would assume that the oil line for the gage would also go to that location. Maybe try checking that pipe to see if it's leaking too.

-Brian

[texas69truck]

its a mechanical gauge with it reading from the back of the intake, there are no leaks up top. i started it up and oil poured out from the filter. the old filter apears to be good. so it must be the oil pressure sending unit??? oil pressure use to read at 60psi and lately its been 40ish. what would i need to do to fix it?
thanks travis

[Bowtie001]

Boy I'll feel dumb if this is wrong:

Unless you have an oil pressure light to go with that oil pressure gage then you don't have an oil pressure sender. The sender is what signals the electric gage/light and tells the gage/light what the pressure is. If it's mechanical AND no light then the oil travels from the engine directly into the back of the gage - no sender required.

If you have a light, check directly above the filter on the block for a sender.


In fact, on SBCs there is(are) a() plug(s) there if there is nothing screwed in. Stare up at the filter while under the truck and feel up beyond the filter with your hand. You should feel two holes that are plugged with little threaded plugs with allen heads. I think these may have been left undrilled for some engines, but I am not sure which. In my experience (with electric sending units though) the upper one was used for the sender and the lower one was un-drilled.

Try that first. If your oil pressure is down that far this leak should be very easy to find. have you climbed underneath it while it was running yet? That's the easiest.


Forgive me if that wasn't right - I don't know that much about mechanical gage setups.

-Brian

[texas69truck]

ive been under the truck while its started and it pours out from around the oil filter. its a mechanical gauge with no light so its not a sending unit problem. i got a new o ring and gasket for the adapter itself but i dont think thats the problem. back out to the parking lot....ill let yall know what happens, thanks for all the help

[Madbomber88]

I second what TONE said. Also, like someone else said, if you did have an oil cooler on it and it has since been removed, they may have left the gasket in place, resulting in a similar situation. This exact thing happened to me in a 90 K5 and had the same symptoms. blew oil all over the place. Turned out the gasket was still there and when you mate a gasket to a gasket like that, it will spew all over. Just a thought.

[Gray Ghost]

Sounds like it's either coming from the oil line boss behind the intake manifold or the oil filter itself. I'd check the oil filter by pulling and replacing it right away. Won't cost much and then you'll know whether or not that was it next time it runs. Then check the oil line boss connection and tighten if necessary. If it's neither one, then you know it's the distributor gasket or a valve cover leak.

[hiridn69gmc]

I've done the double gasket thing. Like said above, changing the filter is cheap. Plus then you know you have fresh oil and filter for another 3000.

Oh yeah, after it's fixed you might want to park in a different area. Hide the fact it was yours leaking so bad!!! Lol!

[larry may]

The suspense is getting to me. WHAT was / is the issue for the oil leak.........texas69truck?????

[Bowtie001]

Forgive me if I don't speak for everyone... but what was the issue?

[Palf70Step]

Check to make sure the old oil filter seal did not stay stuck on. Ihad one with similar symptons and turned out the old ring seal had stuck to the filter mount. It sealed for a little while, then turned itno a massive leake.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by texas69truck

ive been under the truck while its started and it pours out from around the oil filter.

Originally Posted by Bowtie001

Forgive me if I don't speak for everyone... but what was the issue?

I'm a little confused myself... sounds like he just needs to replace the oil filter??? Hopefully the block is not cracked in that area.

[dave2953]

I agree. Sounds like it's nothing more than an old oil filter gasket left on the housing. I've done it before and it had the same outcome as he described.

[texas69truck]

well i guess i just freaked out a little bit from seeing all that oil underneath the truck lol i cleaned off the mating surface of the oil filter really good, didnt see any old gaskets but there was a little build up in some places. got a new one on now and no more leaks! thanks for everyones help in diagnosing what went wrong.