Freelander 1 TD4 oil leak. Cam cover ?

So having put 10k miles on the TD4 Sport.
One annoying thing is a minor oil leak at rear of engine.

Impossible to see where from but it is certainly right at the top.
Also oil, not diesel, sitting around injectors.

Figured best bet is to clean and refurb a complete set of plastics, manifold, cam cover and new silicon hoses and replace the lot with a new gasket. I also see that sealer is advised in a few critical spots. So have a box of goodies ready to go on.

Fairly big job, all injectors have to come out.

While it is stripped down I can check condition as I go. I'm thinking maybe a crack in the cam cover. Can't see the gasket leaking?

Anyone done this job while engine in the car and any tips ??

Thanks.

Hi,

There is one bolt on the plastic engine cover, if not well tighten it can let oil leak.

Regards

Thanks. Yes that is not the source of this leak. It is along the rear of the engine near the bulkhead. Impossible to see even with a flexi camera but it is certainly at the very top.

If there's oil in the glow plug holes, then it does point to the cam cover gasket failing. It's a rubber gasket, which will shrink and harden over a couple of decades.

Thanks, not seen it before but worth stripping and inspecting.
glow plug = injector !

andyfreelandy said:

Thanks, not seen it before

Click to expand...

Definitely a rare one this. I'll be interested to see how the investigation goes. The main oil leak on mine over the years was from one of the turbo bolts, twice.

Spent a couple of hours on this today.
Stripped off all intercooler hoses as replacing these.
All plastic work and injectors and cam cover off.

What an oily mess. Definitely the gasket. What sort of pressure will be in the cam cover?
Looks like it has blown out of the back and showered the underside of the air filter case and the metal plate above the turbo.

The PCV filter had been changed just prior to purchase and I checked. What pressure does the PCV blow at ??

Also, the servicing garage, all stamps in service book is garage, decided that the long tail on the air filter lid was difficult to locate so they hacked it off. This means some oil has got into the back of the air filter housing as the hacking has left gaps and holes !!

So fitting all replacement items suitably cleaned up.

Will also replace the vacuum pipes while cam cover is off as you can get to the back of the engine much easier.

So. TO DO:
New filters, gasket (with the sealer where LR says it is needed), clean injectors and new O rings plus washers and cleaned intake manifold and silicone hoses. Then degrease and clean rear of engine and see what happens.

Will post some photos.

I'm thinking a blocked PCV previously caused the gasket to leak, which has gone hard, then even with a new filter it leaked.

I shall look forward to seeing this one cleaned up. Take a photo of the oily mess too