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[toller]

As i've posted previously i've had quite a bad oil leak for a few weeks now   and have today finally got round to having a look at possible causes as i'm not needing the omega all next week.

I had thought that maybe one of the banjo bolts in the top of the oil cooler was leaking as the oil is pouring down the back of the engine.  Having taken everything off to have a closer look the banjo bolts don't look particularly caked in oil as i'd have expected so i'm thinking its probably not that.

The area at the back of the engine behind the coolant bridge and around where to breather pipes go into the block is caked in oil and looking under the car the underside of the same area is also caked as is the area around the oil filter and oil cooler pipes.  The oil seems to be dripping more down the drivers side.

If it's not the oil cooler banjo bolts is there anything else around the part of the engine that has oil flowing thorugh it that could leak?  The cam covers seals aren't leaking as far as i can tell.

Secondly,  I cleaned the breathers only about 5 weeks ago and upon looking at them today they seem very gunged up, especially the large one that seperates into 2 pipes, that is just full of mayo, the other two smaller pipes don't seem too bad, is this simply because the car is only ever really used for short journeys or could it be something else.

Thirdly, i've read conflicting things regarding how much to tighten the cam cover bolts when using vectra cam covers.  Some people say to tighten them right up and others seem to say stick with the 8Nm as per the plastic covers. which is correct?

Whilst i've got everything stripped down i just want to get all the little niggles sorted on this car as apart from that and the fact it's a poverty spec GLS i do actually enjoy driving it.

[Matchless]

I would stick to 8nm unless you can find a figure for the vectra V6....8nm is plenty for a small bolt in an alloy head.
Breathers will be gunked up due to short runs.
If the cooler banjos are OK then it must be the cam covers leaking, did you use black sealant on the corners of the 'D's ? Did you use VX supplied camcover gaskets or pattern? We have seen several of the pattern ones start leaking after only a week or two....the material seems to go hard and shrink.

[VXL V6]

8nm for the camcovers (whatever type you have) is recommended, it only needs to very slightly compress the rubber gasket.

The Vectra camcovers have a different gasket (I think) and it has been suggested that this then means that when the breathers aren't clean the pressure has to escape somewhere else......