Crazy oil leak!

[pelky350]

I have a oil leak, it only happens when driving furthers than about 20 miles which I don't do often but when it decides to leak randomly it covers my whole engine and Bay Area because it ends up on the pulleys and belts and fan area and I can't find where's it's at because when I clean it it will not leak unless I drive a while and when it does leak it pours oil everywhere to where I cannot pin point the leak, any ideas on where or why it does this? 88 f350 7.3 ats 088 turbo

 

[laserjock]

Harmonic balancer bolt or seal?

 

[pelky350]

Is there any bolts on the front of the engine that if loose would leak oil like on the water pump perhaps it looked newer than the rest of the engine and isn't painted with factory engine color? It's really hard to tell because my whole engine bay is covered in oil I cleaned it a couple times and it seems to be in the front of the engine somewhere it hits the belts and is misted everywhere when it decided to leak. It also started this same leaking when I washed my engine once with a pressure washer

 

[laserjock]

The crank bolt that holds the harmonic balancer. It goes into the oil side. The way you are describing things I almost suspect the harmonic balancer seal just because it sounds like it gets worse with temperature where the oil is starting to thin out. If the seal is worn, the thinner the oil, the more it will slip past the balancer. The front main seal seals around the outside of the harmonic balancer.

 

[Thewespaul]

Maybe let the engine idle for 20 minutes and let it get up to temp and see if you can spot anything

 

[pelky350]

I'll have to give it a good cleaning soon and see cause it's covered In oil from top to bottom right now kinda looks like it could be coming from upper passenger side around the injection pump gear housing too but also a lot of oil near the harmonic balancer as well, when people ask about the oil I just tell them I have a special self oiling chassis system

 

[laserjock]

If it's the front seal, there's a good chance you will need a speedy sleeve. They get a groove worn into them by the seal. If you do, here is the PN along with a pic of it installed.

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The crank bolt and washer get rtv on install.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Yes you asked the right question. You said that the water pump looks newer than everything else. The top two and bottom two bolts only go into nutserts on the front engine cover while the rest actually go through it into the block. These need a sealer on the threads when the water pump is replaced. You need to pull these bolts out and put some sealer on the threads. I use RTV. The top two bolts are easy to see, the bottom ones aren't. Don't mix up the upper and lower bolts either. The upper two need to go back in their holes. If they are too long, the injector pump gear will rub on them as the engine runs. I've been told that this can ruin your injector pump. The new water pumps come with the right length bolts for these holes. From what I read, this should fix your oil leak.

 

[pelky350]

I'll have to pull those bolts and seal them to see cause that seems like a easy fix and good probable location the oil it coming out from what it looks like

 

[ifrythings]

Those bolts won't leak that much oil, good to check them but it's not your leak, my guess would be the lemon shaped plate below your oil fill neck, if that's not sealed right it will dump down the front of the engine and get blown everywhere.