so i recently put a new 30v engine in my 2000 2.8. I replaced timing belt, thermostat, water pump, coils, spark plugs/wires, clutch, and a bunch of other ****. I got the car running and smelled burning rubber/oil when i had the AC/Heat turned on. I did research and it led to me replacing both of my valve cover gaskets and cam chain tensioners. I cleaned all the saturated oil from carriage and such. The smell went away for awhile but came back after 3-4 days of running. Now i realize i should have replaced cam plugs while i was doing this but i did not..


so my question is because just before i drove to my girls house i checked my engine bay and i noticed to the front of the engine bay on drivers side all my hoses to right of auxillary fan and below drivers side headlight assembly were saturated with oil. My oil filter top side was caked in oil as well. Randomly there was a piece of cardboard under my car at the time and i saw a few little dribbles of oil (nothing to cry about) but basically if it is my cam plugs would it be leaking and soaking those hoses and that general area to the front corner of my drivers side engine bay? or could it be something else? It is such a minor leak as i have been checking my oil levels and they are stable but the saturated hoses was basicaly a three week accumlation since i replaced VC gaskets/cam chain tensioners. Also i have not noticed any white smoke coming from engine bay as i did when i had to replace my VC and CC tensioners.

okay any ideas, suggestions, advice would be appreciated... I am not TOO TOO worried about it as i mentioned it seems to be a very minor leak but it needs to be resolved!...i am sorry for long read.

 

what is a cam plug?

sounds to me like you may have installed the vc gaskets incorrectly. they have notches in them and must be seated in the correct spots. other than that, cam seals, oil filter gaskets, and front crank seal can leak. since you have oil in the front, id check your cam seals and valve cover gaskets to insure they were correctly installed

 

cam plug=cam seal sorry...and it may be that i have installed them in properly but based on some other discussion it may be when i replaced VCG/CCT the PCV breather hose was already on its way out. Apparently back pressure or whatever may cause it to leak or break..im going to investigate this today.

 

Yes, crank case breather hoses being clogged will blow seals. It's recommended to check them when you have leaking valve cover gaskets.

 

shouldnt be the cam plugs as they are located on the rear of the engine. Did you replace the cam tensioner gaskets? because those are known to leak like a siv and one of them is in the area in question. otherwise double check the VCG and PCV system. you could always clean it up real nice and try the flourescent dye method if you have access to a black light. stuffs like 3 bucks a bottle at any auto part store.

 

flourescent dye method?...sounds like some 007 stuff haha...but yeah im up at school currently and wont be able to do a good thorough search of my engine bay until friday. I DID replace both my cam chain tensioner gaskets when i replaced the VCG and im very confident i did the installation correct but who knows. As i mentioned the oil leak is not that serious...and the other night i place a piece of cardboard under my engine to see where leaks seeem to be coming from and i saw one little dribble from the front drivers side engine bay corner...one little diribble under my intake (makes me think it may be VCG ) and one towards rear of engine..they were all little dribbles so i am stumped and will have to take a better look on a lift friday

 

ha. its not as crazy as it sounds. you just clean everything up real good and pour a little bit into the fluid in question (oil, coolant, a/c line, etc) and after driving around for a little while park the car in a dark space (or do it at night) and shine a black light into the engine bay. if any of the fluid with the dye has leaked out it will glow and you can attempt to trace it to the point of origin. comes in handy from time to time