Starter and oil leak question

[pickupman]

Last weekend when I was working on my fuel system, I was turning the engine over for ~5-10 with a remote starter switch and noticed there was smoke coming from the starter. I think the starter must be about to die, because there is an oil leak somewhere near where the starter is and the starter has oil on it. I was wondering if anyone has ever used some type of heat shield for the starter to keep oil off of it? I think that the leak must be from the back of the engine, because I changed the passenger valve cover gasket awhile back and can't find anywhere else that it looks like it's leaking. Basically I don't have a way to stop the oil leak at this point, so I need to figure out a way to keep the starter from getting oil on it. If my starter dies and I have to get a new one, I don't want it to fail prematurely due to oil getting all over it.

 

[93blklightning]

I had the same problem , my leak is coming from the heads though . I thought about make a shield for mine also . Haven't lost a starter because if this yet . But I never did make the shield . I will say one thing ...if your heads are seeping , now is the best time to find and fix . Because it just gets worse

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[93blklightning]

Honestly , I thought my time would be better spent changing the head gaskets then making a roof for my starter

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[pickupman]

Honestly , I thought my time would be better spent changing the head gaskets then making a roof for my starter

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Yeah, from what I can tell, I do have a little bit of oil seepage from the heads, but I don't think that's where the main leak is. I know that at some point I will have to do the head gaskets, right now I live in an apartment complex so that is out of the question as well of any likelyhood of fixing the oil leak. Technically, I'm not supposed to work on cars at all in the parking lot, but I do it anyways.

 

[93blklightning]

I know what you mean , sometimes time and a place to do it ate hard to come by, if you do do this, keep us posted

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[icanfixall]

Is the top of the engine wet around any of the fuel items. Like under the injection pump or any of the injectors wet. What happens when we have any oily looking leaks on top of the engine the valley pan has a drain way at the back of it. The way the rear of the block is designed that fuel or oil in the valley pan can only drip down the passenger side of the block all over the starter. We can't redirect it either. So I'm thinking you have a leak into the valley pan and it naturally runs to the drain and down all over the starter.

 

[pickupman]

There are no visible signs of leakage in the fuel system that I can see. I will take a look around the valley pan and see if anything is leaking up there. Thanks for that tip, it makes sense now why I only see leaks under the passenger side of the truck.

 

[1466IH]

Was the smoke comming from starter its self or was it just oil burning off the starter. i know oil leaks arent good but i didnt think that a little bit of oil will ruin the starter

 

[pickupman]

Was the smoke comming from starter its self or was it just oil burning off the starter. i know oil leaks arent good but i didnt think that a little bit of oil will ruin the starter

I'm pretty sure it's the starter itself. When I was cranking it the other day, I never cranked it long enough for the starter to get hot enough to burn oil. The starter accumulates a good amount of oil, and even though I clean it off every now and then, I know all that oil can't be good for it. Given that it's the original starter though, I'm impressed that it has lasted this long. I have changed much newer starters on cars, and I guarantee those starters were never cranked more than a couple seconds. Nothing like the occasional 10-20 seconds we have to do after working on the fuel system. In that respect, you're probably right that oil isn't going to automatically ruin the starter.