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Another oil leak

5K views 7 replies 2 participants last post by  TruckTech 
#1 ·
I am chasing an oil leak on my G8. I recently did the oil pan gasket because it was my main leak. No leaks there any more. I still am getting a drip in the garage. I looked at it tonight and it seems that oil is running down from the top of the engine on left rear. It's not the oil pressure sensor or the valve cover. Anyone have an issue with the back of the valley pan leaking? Any other ideas? Obviously it's really hard to see back there.

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#3 ·
There's no oil inside the bell housing so I don't think that's it.

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#4 ·
I missed where you said it's running from the top of the engine.

Have you checked your PCV connections? There is that nipple on the rear of the driver side valve cover. I'd trace from that area and along the PCV hose.

I suppose it's possible to have a leak from the valley cover, but I don't think that's common.
 
#5 ·
Have you checked your PCV connections? There is that nipple on the rear of the driver side valve cover. I'd trace from that area and along the PCV hose.
I did make a point to look at the rear of the valve cover gasket to make sure it wasn't leaking but I don't think I got a good look at the PCV connection. It seems like it is coming from more towards the center of the rear of the engine though. I will check the PCV line later tonight and report back. Thanks.
 
#6 ·
Theoretically you would't have oil in the PCV lines, but that's part of the oil consumption issues with LS engines. I'm thinking you'd probably have a vacuum leak as well if it were leaking out of the connection/hose. Sorry for the extra posts -- I'm just thinking of things as I'm typing!
 
#7 ·
It's all good. I appreciate any ideas.
 
#8 ·
Fixed!

It's been a while but I finally got around to tearing into this and fixing it and I thought I should share since I found some interesting things.

I removed the intake manifold to take a look at the back of the VLOM (valley cover) and see if I could see where my oil leak was coming from. You can see in image 1 that there is oil all over the back of the engine and it is coming from the perimeter seal of the VLOM. Since I am not doing a DOD delete (yet) I need to replace the seal.

While taking the VLOM off over half of the bolts were not even tight. I certainly found the cause of the leak. I might have been ok just tightening the bolts down and calling it a day but since I am taking it off and I already have the new seal I am replacing it. See image 2.

Come to find out it appears that I have the wrong seal because all of the solenoids use a portion of the gasket that is in the center. So I call my buddy that is a tech at a local Chevy dealer and he looks up the procedure for this repair. Turns out you have to cut all the bars that connect the perimeter portion of the seal to the center to replace just the perimeter seal! Strange but ok. You can see the new seal and the portions I had to cut in images 3 and 4.

Image 5 is what you end up with. Just make sure that when you cut the bars that hold the outside of the original seal that you cut them back far enough that they won't interfere with the new seal. There are pins that locate the seal but they don't hold it in place. You have to be careful when you reinstall it to get it lined up correctly.

I also replaced the VLOM oil filter screen while I had it off. It is the little screen that sits below the oil pressure sensor just to be safe.

Now my car has no leaks and I can keep my garage floor clean and start saving money for that new cam!

Hope this helps someone. The whole cutting the old seal thing worried me until I found out the actual GM procedure.
 

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