Well I changed the valve cover gasket and that wasnt the only thing leaking. There has to be something else leaking on the passenger side of the rear of the engine. I want to check the cam seals and the oil galley freeze plug but how the hell do I get to them. I am assuming I need to remove the plastic timing belt cover to see in there. Is it easily removable? I have never taken it off before. I also did a compresion test while the engine was cold because I forgot to warm it up first. I got 170-160-160-160 for 8:8:1 compression so I am ruling out the headgasket. And I also have arp head studs with a brand new mls gasket.

Hey Dave. I'm having the same problem, oil leak on the passenger side rear of the engine. I never actually SEE it leaking, but whenever I do an oil change I see oil all over my oil pan, oil filter, and all the suspension parts on that side.

I'm about due for another oil change this weekend so I went and bought a new gasket for my oil drain plug hoping that's all it is. I've heard those wear out and start leaking after a while. Let me know if you find the source of your leak and I'll be sure to check it on my car too.

If your cam seals are leaking, then it might be possible to take off the little inspection tab on the front half of the timing belt cover, and get a good light to look inside. Try and look for any oil on the cam sprockets at all, esp the insides of them. I know when i had a oil seal leak, the insides of the cam sprockets had some good oil on them, BUT i dont have the timing belt covers on my car...sooo...Dave, do you know if they have been replaced before?? The only sure way to find out is to remove the back timing belt cover. The only way to do that is to remove the timing belt :(

This might sound crazy but I had the same problem, couldnt figure out what the hell was leaking, same side and all. I finally figured it out, it was just my oil cap, I bought a new one, it tightened down like new and it hasnt leaked since. I replaced a shit load of gaskets before I figured it out. For some reason my old oil cap wasnt going down all of the way, even though it used to.


Eclipse RS-T...The -T Stand for Non-Turbo!

I was leaking a little oil from my oil cap too, so I replaced it with a billet aluminum one before my last oil change. I'm not leaking any oil on top anymore, but still leaking underneath somewhere. :(

Yes my cam gears have been taken off a few times. I got all new gaskets for everything on my last rebuild. I will check it out and let you gus know. I also was talking to greg and he said he used some dye for his oil that lights up under a black light. I might try that also to see where its coming from.

I'll bet you a beer that its your cam seals.

They suck ass. Trust me. I've rebuilt my cylinder head 4 times and my engine 2 times and out of those 6 times that i've replaced the cam seals and installed them PROPERLY (meaning just like how the manual says to do it), only 2 times i've gotten them to not leak.

To really know if they are leaking, and without taking the timing belt and covers off (yeah sorry you do have to take that off to replace the seals), just see if you have any oil dripping coming from the bottom of the alternator bracket where it bolts to the back of the block.

If you can see oil "drippings" coming from that side, its your cam seal (that is assuming that you do not have an oil leak coming from the valve cover on the back).

Right now i just finished rebuilding/replacing my whole longblock. Even had the shits assembled mostly from a machine shop. Right now i have the intake cam seal leak a bit on me. But its not enough to cause a concern for me because my oil level does not drop between oil changes. Not enough of a reason for me to deal with the hassle of replacing the timing belt to fix 'em things.
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Vinnie Lima
vinnie.lima@jvllogistics.com
AIM: Kiku888
1997 Chrysler Sebring "Silver XTC"
I4 420a w/ HRC Stage 2.45 w/ FMIC
14.7@97 mph@6psi
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