Oil Leak (Unknown Part) HELP

[Flxr_88]

I originallyt thought this could be a coolant problem, as I have been loosing some coolant (as it seemed) just needed a little burping. Anyway. Drove the car for a good 10 mins, and realized it was smoking again. Logically I pulled over and opened the hood. It was a white, thicker smoke coming from the engine bay, lower down, lower than the turbo, and farther foward. I saw some oil pooled so I immediately drove home. Gracefully as possible. Smelled oil on the way home too. I took some pictures of the part that had oil on it, and the surrounding pipe that was underneath it. Thought the pipe underneath was the exaust, and the part that was leaking seemed to be missing a bolt or bracket. Need some help on what the part is, and if I need any further parts. 

[Flxr_88]

*Update. Need to know what the red thing is. Is it the valve cover? At the same spot on the other side. Oil is leaking at almost every bolt attaching the exaust to the red thing. Could this be valve cover or head gasket. Or could this be the gasket going to the exaush manifold.

[KZJonny]

Ah…. Red thing is the head.

Leak appears to be on the passenger side, from the photos?

First guess would be turbo oil drain hose… they get old and fail. But there are a lot oil pipes above all that which could be leaking.

Valve cover gaskets are notorious for leaking oil when aging out. But the turbo oil feed pipe is also a possibility. Better photos will help.

Best thing for diagnosing will be to start at the top, checking all oil feed bolts and working you way down. If there is too much oil to see where the leak is coming from, wash everything down until it’s clean as you can get it, then go for a quick trip and look for fresh oil.

UV dye it cheap and van really help locate the source if that all strikes out.

[Flxr_88]

Thank you! Jacked the car up and took some more photos. I’ll add them below. I’ll try that. Looks like it’s leaking from head? Also it is on the passenger side. Could this just be a seal on the pipe to the head? I’ll look more for the oil leak tonight based on what you explained. Thanks again. 

[KZJonny]

37 minutes ago, Flxr_88 said:

Thank you! Jacked the car up and took some more photos. I’ll add them below. I’ll try that. Looks like it’s leaking from head? Also it is on the passenger side. Could this just be a seal on the pipe to the head? I’ll look more for the oil leak tonight based on what you explained. Thanks again. 

It could be the seal between the turbo oil feed and the block, which is pretty easy to find. Back side of passenger side of the block there is a banjo bolt and copper washer.

Could be turbo oil feed at the turbo (another banjo bolt the top of the centre section of the turbo) or the metal tube itself, which can fail. Gettting to those should only require you take the heat sheild off. Pretty easy, but they're also further back than where that leak seems to be.

Turbo drain hose is kinda hard to get to, but a visual should tell you if it is dry or not.

If the oil is coming from where the head and block meet, then your head gasket(s) are finished. If from between the top (outside) of the head and the valve cover, then snug the bolts up and try again, but most likely you need to get a complete set with new seals for the bolts, etc...

 

Hope it isn't the head gaskets for your sake. It's not the worst job in the world, but I just did the head on my SOHC Outback and it took a week of evenings.

[Flxr_88]

Got it Thanks again. Had the head gaskets and valve covers seals done about 50k miles ago. Is the seal and bolts you were talking about for the pipe connecting to the head? Or was it for the valve cover. I will take a closer look at what you explained when I get home. Thanks for the help. Very detailed. New to this! Thanks. 

[KZJonny]

Yes, valve cover gasket kit comes with rubber buttons for the bolts where they pass through, that's what I meant. 50K Miles ago doesn't mean the valve cover gasket may not be leaking again now, especially if the parts used were not OEM, or one of the other higher end ones (Mahle, Fel-Pro, etc...) Head gasket should definitely last longer than that, but still.... I'm sure some have failed that soon. All I am saying is don't rule them out offhand becase they're "new". Investigate everything. It'll be the thing you assumed was fine that ends up being the problem!

If you get stuck, I can take a couple photos of what I mean, but it's pretty obvious once you get in there.

[Flxr_88]

awesome! Checked those bolts and all looked clean. The valve cover gasket looks to be the culprit. I may be wrong. All bolts looked good but I will probably replace the turbo oil pipe and banjo bolts. Heard they had filters on the banjo bolts and bam be a culprit. Just rained but all pictures were oil. Not water. I can see that the brown may be where the oil was burning off. Also, can I wire brush some of the rust off of the exhaust manifold coming off the header, and are there gaskets in between those?

[KZJonny]

Yeah, probably a good place to start with the rocker cover gaskets.

Could start by just checking if they’re snug. That looks like a pretty big gap to me, there is a slim chance that if you tighten everything up just a little, you’ll stop leaking oil all over. Clean everything up and see if that does it for you. (Worth the shot)

There are definitely gaskets between the exhaust headers and the head. No reason not to clean up some of the rust, but I wouldn’t drop the exhaust pipes unless you have to for some other reason. You’d want to replace the gaskets if you do.

In the second photo, the bolt at the top left with that stub of wire coming out from it used to be a grounding strap which would attach to the block. Worth replacing that while you’re working in there. Should be easy enough to find the other bolt with the same kind of broken stub on the bottom of the block. Bad grounds can lead to all kinds of other problems.

[Flxr_88]

I will replace that. Where should I run the ground wire to? Or should I take that yellow wire, see where it runs to and hook it up to that bolt? A couple other wire harnesses I noticed not connected to anything in engine bay, and inside. I’ll take some pictures of those when I can if you don’t mind looking. Doesn’t seem to have another harness to connect to either, kind of just hanging there right now. 

[KZJonny]

Yellow wire sheathing is your O2 sensor. Leave that alone.

The place where the ground strap should attach to is on the bottom of the block. Should be a bolt head you can see wherewhere (that might well have the remnants of a ground strap left attached to it....) If not, look at the other side of the engine. There will (should) be a ground strap on that side. You can just do the mirror of that one. 2 ground are better than one. If there isn't a ground of the other side of the block, you've got some serious problem coming to you. Electronics need a good ground.

There are a few harness ends in the car that don't really go to anything. Mostly stuff for diagnostics and features that the car could have but does not. I wouldn't worry about them too much unless something doesn't work.

I only know of one harness end in the engine bay that really doesn't go anywhere, or need be attached. Maybe a second if you have an aftermarket catless up pipe, and even then, it had to have a resistor stuffed into it, so it's not like you'd want to get rid of it.

Photos will help with sorting that out.

[Flxr_88]

Uh oh. Bolts seemed loose. Tightened them up with smaller wrench. Have a torque wrench from harbor freight that my dad had years ago. What should I torque it to? I saw 4.7in but mine doesn’t go that low, afraid of breaking bolts off. Cleaned oil up and took it for a spin. Less smoke but still could smell it. Should I keep going? I will provide a pic of it cleaned, and where I saw oil pooling. A smidgen on leftmost marking. Also couldn’t get to farthest back, bottom bolt, any tips? Should I go back and tighten all of them? Thank you so much for all the help. I also have an air oil separator and coolant mod for the fourth piston. Are these good for further longevity?

[KZJonny]

It'll take a while for all that oil to burn off, unless you did one hell of a job cleaning up and getting every last bit.

With any luck, you found the source of your oil leak, so keep an eye on it. If those bolts were that loose and most of the oil was coming from there and leaking on the headers, then maybe that's it.

Unless you are willing to go out and get a 1/4" drive low range torque wrench, I would just continue to use a short wrench and snug up all the bolts on both sides, the get everything as clean as you can. (I take back what I was saying earlier about the bolts having seals, they do not on these cam covers, but do on other EJ engines.) I'm guessing most people just hand tighten these ones, but it doesn't hurt to do so in a criss-cross pattern, starting in the middle. There it is a diagram in the FSM, but I also don't think it's critical, these gaskets shouldn't be hold back much pressure, just keeping oil from leaking out like yours were.

EDIT: Just snug, as you've already done. You probably won't snap the head off of a bolt, since they are hard steel threading into an aluminium head. You may however, strip the threads in the head, which is an even worse problem, so go easy. If it won't stop leaking, you need to get new gaskets, clean up and use a tiny bit of RTV sealant at all the corners of the gasket when installing, which the last installer may not have done.

Might not hurt to check your current PCV valve, and clean it if it doesn't make a rattling noise (generally means it's working). Cylinder 4 cooling mod is probably a good idea, tho some would argue it doesn't do too much. I personally have one, and think it's worth the money based on the information provided by GetaDomTune, and the fact that plenty of JDM cars come with it. AOS is very divisive, and most people will tell you it's not worth the money unless tracking the car, so little oil gets into the intake anyway. They're probably right. Unless your really on boost a lot, or driving the car hard all the time, it's probably not worth the money, but since you already have one, it's fine to install it, if it is a good one anyway (IAG or Crawford or the like, if it's an chinese made special, I would personally just sell it on and keep your PCV system clean.) I also drank the kool aid and bought and IAG AOS system, and it's been sitting in a box for a year while i decide whether or not to install it. I know I don't need it, but I'd lose money selling it, and it doesn't hurt. YMMV.

Edited September 27, 2023 by KZJonny

[Flxr_88]

Thanks. I will tighten all the bolts. The AOS I have is the IAG and the coolant mod I have is the GetADomTune fourth piston coolant mod. Tried to get the best there was out there and those seemed like the ones. I’ll install the AOS when I drain the coolant for the piston mod. Thank you for all the help, and I’ll keep looking underneath to look for oil. 

[Flxr_88]

I noticed the bolt marked on far right of picture has a gab between the head and valve cover. Should there be one? I’ll try to get a picture tomorrow if that helps.

[KZJonny]

7 hours ago, Flxr_88 said:

I noticed the bolt marked on far right of picture has a gab between the head and valve cover. Should there be one? I’ll try to get a picture tomorrow if that helps.

Yeah. Totally fine, it’s how they’re cast.

The cover just needs to hold the gasket in place along the groove where it sits. Where the bolt heads touch or don’t doesn’t matter.

[Flxr_88]

Thanks for all the help. Almost positive my oil leak is fixed now. Put the AOS in runs like a beauty. About 6hours of labor with confusing instructions but I got it. Although I also put on a Cobb air intake and put a tube on the car. The Stage 1 +SF map and it threw a check engine light with codes testing to tgv sensors, and I remember a 2008 number showing too. Relating to open circuits. Do you know anything about helping this? I just took it off for now. Also the Cobb aces sport was not reading my boost, which I don’t know how it would anyways. 

[KZJonny]

Acessport should definitely be reading vacuum/boost. Aside from wiring on the vacuum boost sensor being damaged or the like, I don't know why it wouldn't be seeing that. Remembering that the AP just 'sees' everything the ECU does and displays it to you.... Which is cool, but also limiting, since you need to send all signals to it via the limited number of I/O's that the ECU has.

At a guess about the codes and the 2008? something not plugged in properly when you swapped to the CAI? Dunno.  But it does tell you something about the COBB intake, they are pretty but cause some problems, and are not as 'cold' as the stock intake.

Anyway, stock airbox is generally regarded as the best thing to use up until ~350whp or so, then it begins to be a restriction. It's also a true cold air intake, pulling from above and almost in front of the rad, so that's pretty hard to beat. If you want more noise, then good luck with any aftermarket CAI or SR intakes. They all require a tune to run properly... yes, even a COBB intake on a COBB AP tune seems to have problems at idle.

 

Glad to hear you seem to have the oil leak beat tho!

[Flxr_88]

So I should have a tune for the Cobb CAI to run properly. Troubleshoot the codes that were thrown with the tune on it, being that would be best for the car?

[KZJonny]

Long story short, these cars/engines/managment are a little particular. Most turbo cars are, Subaru definitely seems to fall into the category of "needs a tune for everything".

From where you sit right now, I would say stay stock intake and enjoy. Unless you've got lots of other mods that are leaving power on the table without being tuned... It's gonna be a couple/few hundred for a good quality e-tune, to make everything nice nice.

So, given the price of the intake, and the fact that it really won't be helping you make any more hp... what's the point? From your photos it looks like you still have the stock DP, which is the thing that mainly will be hold you back at this point. Of course COBB neither makes nor supports aftermarket DPs for these car at the moment. (Grimmspeed has one again tho...) And if you can find an old map for a real stage 2 tune, then you are able to make some power. Of course if you get one later on, you'll need another tune for that, unless you're lucky and the car is happy on the COBB OTS map. I've been on a Stg 2 COBB map all summer, but next thing I'm doing is having it pro-tuned to be sure it's running safe and happy with the mods I've done, and those that are waiting to be installed.

Most people wait until they arrive at at 'stop point' or run out of parts money  before they get a tune, then stay there for a while.

Of course, before you do anything like that, you'd be best to make sure that your engine is healthy and will support an extra 25% hp/tq from a Stage 2 upgrade. (compression check, remove all oil line filters, turbo journal bearing health, good spark, etc.... lots to do.) '05 LGT's also have a catalytic in the up-pipe, which is a good thing to get rid of as well, unless it's already been done. Lots of good places to spend money on these things before asking them for a whole lot more power.