Is this just a valve cover leak, or external head gasket leak too?

[Golden Helmet]

Heya fellas. I've got an oily patch on my passenger-side inner fender that's been gradually getting worse. There's oil up on the AC drier, all along the underside of the heater hose that comes out of the block, and sprayed out on the fender insulation. There are no oil spots under the truck; the oil is leaking up instead of down, that's what has me confused

The valve covers are definitely leaky, but would a leaky valve cover also spray oil out like this? That's why I'm wondering if maybe I have an external head gasket leak, and I was hoping you guys might be able to weigh in on that. The driver side valve cover is leaky too, but that side is MUCH cleaner than the passenger side.

Just as some background information on my engine, it's got 320k miles and all the seals are original. I change the oil every 3k miles, and at 3k it's no more than ~1-1.5qts low on oil. I had a compression test done @ 300k and all 8 cylinders were above 400psi. If I run the engine with the oil fill cap off, there's no blow-by at all. No oil in the coolant or vice versa, no bubbles in the coolant, no white smoke. It seems to be a happy engine, just a little leaky.

Let me know what you guys think, I appreciate your guys' input.

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[riphip]

Valve Cover Gasket needs replacing

 

[Thewespaul]

Yep. Your fan is working well, it’s what’s making the oil travel up.

 

[Golden Helmet]

Thanks for the input guys. I kinda figured it was just the valve cover and the HG was a longshot, but it never hurts to get a second opinion

I've read about the passenger side valve cover gaskets being a PITA to do. I think I'll be learning some new four letter words pretty soon.

Yep. Your fan is working well, it’s what’s making the oil travel up.

That makes sense, the leak has been there for a long time but, now that I think about it, it started getting messier after the new fan clutch went in. Good to know it's working

 

[icanfixall]

Heya fellas. I've got an oily patch on my passenger-side inner fender that's been gradually getting worse. There's oil up on the AC drier, all along the underside of the heater hose that comes out of the block, and sprayed out on the fender insulation. There are no oil spots under the truck; the oil is leaking up instead of down, that's what has me confused

The valve covers are definitely leaky, but would a leaky valve cover also spray oil out like this? That's why I'm wondering if maybe I have an external head gasket leak, and I was hoping you guys might be able to weigh in on that. The driver side valve cover is leaky too, but that side is MUCH cleaner than the passenger side.

Just as some background information on my engine, it's got 320k miles and all the seals are original. I change the oil every 3k miles, and at 3k it's no more than ~1-1.5qts low on oil. I had a compression test done @ 300k and all 8 cylinders were above 400psi. If I run the engine with the oil fill cap off, there's no blow-by at all. No oil in the coolant or vice versa, no bubbles in the coolant, no white smoke. It seems to be a happy engine, just a little leaky.

Let me know what you guys think, I appreciate your guys' input.

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Valve cover gasket. Also looks like you need the exhaust manifold too.

 

[Golden Helmet]

Also looks like you need the exhaust manifold too.

I wasn't expecting to hear that, what do you see that makes you think the exhaust manifold gasket is leaking? I would think there would be soot around the area and you'd be able to hear an exhaust leak.

 

[icanfixall]

Looking at the last pic it appears the number one cylinder side of the exhaust manifold is missing but.. Further looking tells me I was wrong. The first, second and third pics shows the area shrouded by fender well insulation MAKING the manifold look missing. Funny how it looks...