07-26-2009, 08:41 AM
Having owned a number of Porsches, I have gotten used to the oil drip in my garage. That was one of things that prompted me to paint the garage floor! But, about a month ago, just after doing a front engine seal job, (which took me about 10 hours to perform) I experienced the worst oil leak I have ever seen in any of my cars. Being a little bit paranoid, I assumed that I had screwed up one of the seals I had just installed. So, I took it all apart again just so that I could get the rear timing belt guard off to inspect the seals. On inspection, the seals were all fine. Then I looked to the left, and saw what I should have seen before pulling everything apart (I needed the practice anyway): The O-ring seals had failed on the lines that go from the thermostat housing down to the auxilliary oil cooler. These types of failures will begin to become more common as our cars age. Incidentally, you'll need (4) of the O-rings to complete the job, which is very easy to do. It actually took longer to clean up all the oil than to install new seals.
Anyway, with the guards off, I decided to put the timing and balance shaft belts back on so that I could run the motor to temperature and look for additional leaks. When I did that, I found only one more leak.....a seeper. The leak is coming around one of the bolts that hold the oil pump to the front of the motor. Oddly enough, there is no seal for the oil pump. The manual specifies the use of RTV to form the seal between the pump and the motor.
Which brings me to my question. Is there a proven way to repair this type of leak without the extra work of pulling the entire pump off the engine? Giving it some thought, I have an idea but am not sure if it would work. My idea is to run the motor until at temperature and the leak begins. Then I shut her down, drain the oil from the pan. Next I would remove the bolt from the leaking area and use brake cleaner and compressed air to clean out and dry the leak area. I would then let the engine cool all the way down and repeat the cleaning/drying cycle. Then, before oil has a chance to move back into the leak path, I would fill the bolt hole with something like an RTV liquid gasket and then replace the bolt. I'm hoping that the process along with torquing the bolt down with RTV under the bolt will force the sealer into the leak and seal it off.
What do you think my chances of success are? Or, is there a proven way to attack this minor type of leak?
Anyway, with the guards off, I decided to put the timing and balance shaft belts back on so that I could run the motor to temperature and look for additional leaks. When I did that, I found only one more leak.....a seeper. The leak is coming around one of the bolts that hold the oil pump to the front of the motor. Oddly enough, there is no seal for the oil pump. The manual specifies the use of RTV to form the seal between the pump and the motor.
Which brings me to my question. Is there a proven way to repair this type of leak without the extra work of pulling the entire pump off the engine? Giving it some thought, I have an idea but am not sure if it would work. My idea is to run the motor until at temperature and the leak begins. Then I shut her down, drain the oil from the pan. Next I would remove the bolt from the leaking area and use brake cleaner and compressed air to clean out and dry the leak area. I would then let the engine cool all the way down and repeat the cleaning/drying cycle. Then, before oil has a chance to move back into the leak path, I would fill the bolt hole with something like an RTV liquid gasket and then replace the bolt. I'm hoping that the process along with torquing the bolt down with RTV under the bolt will force the sealer into the leak and seal it off.
What do you think my chances of success are? Or, is there a proven way to attack this minor type of leak?
