Hello there. Hopefully someone out here can help me diagnose a severe oil leak. Oil is pouring out of the car when running near the valve cover gasket and the cover for the timing belt on the passenger side/front of motor. What I am trying to figure out before having it repaired, iWhat s the likeyhood it can be a blown head gasket? There is no antifreeze present and the car is not over heating. 

 the first suspect i would think would be valve cover gaskets, those are very easy to change so i would do that and while you are at it clean up the oil on the heads so you can clearly see where the leak is coming from If it is still present after the valve cover gasket change. if it is a head gasket the oil will start leaking between the head and the block and if you clean it up good around there you will be able to tell. IMHO i doubt its the head gasket. it would help to know what engine you have though.

Edited March 19, 201313 yr by mikaleda

cover plate on back of oil pump?

 

cam seal?

 

yeah, need to clean thoroughly and pin down the source.

it's a 1996 subaru impreza awd 2.2 liter lx. My friend is going to take a look. I suspect that I am going to have to take the timing belt cover off to really pin point the source of the leak, because with the cover on, it looks like it's coming from between the valve cover and the casing of the timing belt.. I was just wondering what the likely hood of this kind of leak would be a head gasket failure.  Would pure clean oil be pouring out of the car at an exponential rate if it was a head gasket? Does antifreeze need to be present in order to have a head gasket failure?

it's a 1996 subaru impreza awd 2.2 liter lx. My friend is going to take a look. I suspect that I am going to have to take the timing belt cover off to really pin point the source of the leak, because with the cover on, it looks like it's coming from between the valve cover and the casing of the timing belt.. I was just wondering what the likely hood of this kind of leak would be a head gasket failure.  Would pure clean oil be pouring out of the car at an exponential rate if it was a head gasket? Does antifreeze need to be present in order to have a head gasket failure?

No, head gasket is not going to cause massive oil leak. Most likely a bad seal. Don't drive it with the bad oil leak, because of fear of running out of oil. No oil will destroy a motor  in a hurry.

No, head gasket is not going to cause massive oil leak. Most likely a bad seal. Don't drive it with the bad oil leak, because of fear of running out of oil. No oil will destroy a motor  in a hurry.

thank you. Driving is definitely NOT on the menu. It will be towed to where it will be repaired. That's for sure. Thanks for the reply!

Edited March 19, 201313 yr by ericf2014

Do a timng belt job, and reseal the Crank, and both Cam seal.  Also, replace the o-ring between the Cam sensor holder and the head. 

 

Also, do valve covers, and the cap on the back of the Passenger side head(same o-ring as the cam sensor holder)

 

That will take care of 90% of the leakage.  Only other place to leak would be the rear seporator/rear main and oil pan........which can be done in the future next time the engine needs pulled.

Oops wrong thread

Edited March 19, 201313 yr by mikaleda