Pretty much capitalizes the shitty week I have had. Stopped my car in the garage after I got home from work this morning and noticed an excessive amount of money coming from the engine bay. I took a peek inside and saw this oil EVERYWHERE. Checked the dipstick and it barely shows any oil on it. So somewhere along the line I lost 2qts of oil.

Now my first guess is the valve cover gasket. I know some 2.8's have a problem with it leaking but upon further inspection the oil doesn't seem to be coming from that area. It's definitely coming from the passenger side of the engine as there is oil literally sprayed all over that side of the engine bay. Is there a common failure point for that gasket?

My next guess is that the PCV has failed and is causing oil to spray out the dipstick. I noticed a bit of a "wooshing" noise at 3000rpm, could be air getting forced packed the dipstick tube? The dipstick was half-*** out of the tube and I KNOW I didn't put it there. But where is the stupid PCV valve on the engines?

Barring that I suppose the only other guesses I have would be the rear cam cover (doesn't seem likely as not much oil is back there) or the ******* head gasket. I know these engines aren't prone to head gasket failure but I'm not ruling anything out right now.

 

Update: I took off the valve cover and the gasket seems to be fine. I guess my original estimates were off and the oil seems to be coming from further down in the engine. On the other hand when I took off the valve cover the breather tube for the vacuum broke with it. The part where it connects to the valve cover was all plugged up and the hose was very oily and brittle. I don't know if that has anything to do with my problem here but I'll replace it anyway (seeing as how I broke it).

I hope it's not the head gasket. But that wouldn't make any sense. I have never seen or heard of a head gasket failure leaking high-pressure oil outside of the engine. The coolant and spark plugs both look great. Maybe I am just being paranoid. Then again, I am not sure where the oil galleys are in this engine. About the only bit of good news is the timing belt is in great shape.

 

Is it near the front of the motor or the back of the motor?

 

Neither, it is right along the side of the passenger engine opposite of the intake manifold. The reason it was smoking so much is because the exhaust manifold and heat shield were both full of oil.

 

That is odd. Considering your breather was clogged, the only thing that I can think of is the valve cover gasket. But you are saying that is not the case... Was the dipstick properly inserted? Why don't you fill the oil and run the car to see. Your car will run fine without the breather hose.

 

Well I am putting on a new valve cover gasket, new breather hose (old one was clogged as hell and I am gonna take a look under neath to see if anything down there is not right.

 

don't the bad cam adjuster seal leaks sometimes look like a valve cover gasket leak?

 

On bank 1, cam adjuster seal leak is at the rear for the motor. So it would not be leaking from the side as in this case.

 

While at it, either replace the suction pump or replace it with a new one.

 

thats weird!
hope you find it...