I’m wondering; are they blind or through to the crankcase?
Since I’ve torn down/ripped apart the topside of my engine chasing
an elusive oil leak/s and since i have right side jack stranded to install fuel filter…
I still have small oil leak/leaks from drivers side that doesn’t seem to come from the
oil pan gasket but from the bolts themselves?
I’m monitoring / observing this carefully as I can… since its jacked up and ez to see
I’m fairly certain it’s leaking via the threads of the bolts.
So I’m considering if that becomes a fairly certain guess… to exract bolts one at a time, clean the threads best I can with brake cleaner, add some anaerobic sealer and retorque each bolt. I have read that anaerobic will seal (obviously) in the absence of oxygen… and in the presence of oil or other liquids.
Anyhoo, I have cleaned an area to check in the AM to see if there is still a leak and is it oil pan gasket or bolts.
AS for the oil pan and the bolts they go into the block. When you pull the pan there isn’t a gasket usualy there was originally a gasket used but the dealers usually reseal the pan with just sealent. The rubber sealent can be thicker on the outside of the pan and not on the inside of the pan face. This will cause the oil to leak through the bolt holes. So you might need to pull and seal the pan if it is indeed coming though the bolt holes.
And in order for the sealant to seal there needs to be absolutely no oil present and the surfaces squeaky clean. Just cramming some sealant in there is not going to work. The bolt holes are not the source of the leak. When you think about where sealant is applied to the pan, you will recognized that a failure of the sealant will allow oil to reach and weep out the bolt holes in the pan. So, sealing at the bolt holes will not stop the leakage of oil. It will just make it’s way out elsewhere. You’re going to need to bite the bullet and pull the pan.
I also found an oil cooler leak located above the pan on the passenger side. This leak was masked by the oil pan leak. Who knows, there may be other leaks that I can now find since I’ve addressed these two…
Exactly. prep and placement of the sealant is a big must and making sure that there is equal distrabution of sealant on and around the bolt holes is important. Just make sure that you dont go too crazy and go overboard you dont want sealant over run to make its way into the actual pan and oil system.
I’m not quit ready to tackle seeming ubiquitous oil leak/s as I will have
new radiator to install in a week or so and new brakes all around to do
in the meantime.
I “think” there are other leaks besides the oil pan and I don’t want to go
too deep into it right now. I hear that a nice coating of oil prevents rust. ha