Hello team,

I developed an irritating oil leak from somewhere in the engine. It appears to be tracking down the bell housing to engine block joint and drops oil off the bottom of the bell housing. Photos showing an oily 'dampness' quite high up that joint above the engine serial number. The only place I can think of as the possible source are: the engine's main oil seal in the bell housing, the sump to block joint at the bell housing or the head - which I think is unlikely.

I'm due an oil change so it wouldn't be a huge drama to pull off the sump and have a look.

Your thoughts?
ignore the coolant weep as that's sorted now.
you can see the top edge of the bell housing there - oily but like further to the left it's been there for some time.
the engine's serial number is covered here.
just a bit higher here.
behind the coolant pipes looks dry enough - that's the head / block joint too.
that oily stain doesn't look wet enough to be recent / current.
from a different angle still not wet enough...
looking at the head / block joint from behind the head [ looking forwards]
looking along the g'box to the motor where the bell housing joins the block - still not wet. looking vertically down beside the distributor - not so wet eh.

I'd be checking the cam seal behind the distributor cap. That's quite a common leak point.

I've checked behind both the coil and he distributor - both clean & dry

The oil feed from the main oil gallery to the head comes up the centre of the block, on the back of the engine (ringed in red).

It's possible that there a slight leak at that point though the HG elastopolymer seal. Do you see any dampness on that end of the engine, at the block to head joint.

I took off the coil, distributor cap & air cleaner to get a better view. There's no obvious 'wet' oil weep in that area. There is what appears to be old and dusty oil.

htr said:

I took off the coil, distributor cap & air cleaner to get a better view. There's no obvious 'wet' oil weep in that area. There is what appears to be old and dusty oil.
View attachment 207273
View attachment 207274

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That looks fine. However what I can see is dampness at the bell housing to block joint.

This would suggest the crankshaft rear oil seal is leaking slightly. This would allow the flywheel to spray oil around the inside of the bell housing, causing it to creep through the bell to block joint.

That's an IRD and gearbox out job right?

htr said:

That's an IRD and gearbox out job right?

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Yes. But unless it's actually causing clutch issues, or big puddles of oil on the floor, then I'd leave it for now .