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[Steve Pearce]

Howdy,

So bit of a balls up, got all the new gaskets on and fitted and finally got the plenum back on. Took the car for a spin but got back to even more oil smoke from under the bonnet and a trail of oil up the drive. Happily there is only oil leaking from one side of the V6 now but it appears to be pissing out of the somewhere, leading me to suspect its the half moon thats not seated correctly (it'll be the one of the right of the left cam cover, if looked at from the front!). The only other thing that i guess it could be is that i had to guess the torque for the cam cover/plenum bolts, mainly because my torque wrench only starts at 20. I was doing them up with a ratchet basically until there was a bit of resistance and tweaking them only slightly more (i.e. 1/10th of a turn or so!). Could that result in such a large oil leak?

So it leads to a few questions;

Is it possible to get to the half moon and squeeze it out without removing the plenum again. If not, what is the bare minimum that'll need to come off the plenum to let me get at it?

How many heat cycles go through the seals before they start to harden into there position? In other words, if i have to take the cam cover off again to get at the offending seal, will the same seal be ok to put back on, or am i going to have to order another one? Same i guess with the o-rings.

Will that oil leak have left the spark plugs swimming in oil again as they were before the gaskets were replaced? If so, does it really matter (i.e. can it be left, assuming i dont have to take the cam cover off again!)?

On an associated note, ive ended up with a pipe that a cant find the home of, and indeed 2 torx screws. The pipe is the type that connects the radiators to various things at the back, and usually fits into a rubber hose. Im left with a metre long piece, with only one rubber hose (at the back drivers side of the plenum) but cant find anywhere else to put it. Are any of them meant to be left unattached to act as an overflow or something?

Thats the lot, hopefully!

[Darth Loo-knee]

If I were you I would remove that whole Cam Cover and start again. The sealer doesn't take that long to go off so by the time you had put it back together again and now run it I would say it had gone off.
I would also get yourself a torque wrench mate as over tightening the cam cover gaskets can warp the covers, we on here have seen it to many times..
As for the spark plugs swimming in oil again... it depends on where the gaskets are leaking...
If you have an Auto Omega you will have an Autobox Breather Pipe that goes nowhere other than high up with all the other hoses etc to stop water going down there thats usually why they are bend down at the top (if that makes sense).

[V6 CDX-er]

I'm by no means an expert, but I cant see how the job would be possible without removing the plenum. Also the sealant does harden pretty quickly. If it were me then I'd buy an new rocker cover gasket for that side, (and a low reading torque wrench as well).

[Darth Loo-knee]

I'm by no means an expert, but I cant see how the job would be possible without removing the plenum. Also the sealant does harden pretty quickly. If it were me then I'd buy an new rocker cover gasket for that side, (and a low reading torque wrench as well).

As long as Genuine Cam Cover Gaskets have being used there is no need to buy new they will be fine. 

[Steve Pearce]

They are Vx ones, so i guess they'd be alright.

That said, ive spent the last two hours looking and cant spot any oil coming from anywhere. I managed to sneak a finger to the half moon seals and they seem to be in place, though the one that i thought might be leaking is in an ever so slightly different position to the one that definitely isnt leaking.

In summary, it seems as if it may not be the cam cover that is leaking (short of taking the plenum off). So the next question is is there anything on that side of the engine that has a tendency to spew oil everywhere if not positioned correctly? I crawled under the car as much as i could and couldnt see much, though there was one small section, about 4 inches long, of rubber pipe that had oil dripping from, but i couldnt see whether this was from that pipe or because something was dripping from above.

The bolts arnt overtightened, they are barely more than finger tight. Happily there is no oil sloshing around the spark plugs, which is a start

Oh, back to the hose question, ive still no idea where it connects. The rubber hose it joins by the back drivers side of the plenum is blowing out air. Slightly to the side of it is another hose that is connected to something just behind the radiator and also there is another one running off to the fan unit (i assume) behind the pollen filter. Any suggestions as to where the other pipe goes? (if thats too vague il try and get a picture up tomorrow!)

[Entwood]

They are Vx ones, so i guess they'd be alright.

That said, ive spent the last two hours looking and cant spot any oil coming from anywhere. I managed to sneak a finger to the half moon seals and they seem to be in place, though the one that i thought might be leaking is in an ever so slightly different position to the one that definitely isnt leaking.

In summary, it seems as if it may not be the cam cover that is leaking (short of taking the plenum off). So the next question is is there anything on that side of the engine that has a tendency to spew oil everywhere if not positioned correctly? I crawled under the car as much as i could and couldnt see much, though there was one small section, about 4 inches long, of rubber pipe that had oil dripping from, but i couldnt see whether this was from that pipe or because something was dripping from above.

The bolts arnt overtightened, they are barely more than finger tight. Happily there is no oil sloshing around the spark plugs, which is a start

Oh, back to the hose question, ive still no idea where it connects. The rubber hose it joins by the back drivers side of the plenum is blowing out air. Slightly to the side of it is another hose that is connected to something just behind the radiator and also there is another one running off to the fan unit (i assume) behind the pollen filter. Any suggestions as to where the other pipe goes? (if thats too vague il try and get a picture up tomorrow!)

Oil filler pipe.... it's easy not to get it in straight, or to "twist" the o-ring .. might be worth a check ?? 

[V6 CDX-er]

I think take the plenum off again and have a good look.

Removing the plenum isn't too time consuming or difficult, but it will allow you to easily see what the problem is.

[Steve Pearce]

Right some answers;

Yes, the half moon on the right (from front of car) of the drivers side cam cover wasnt seated right. I took it off, reapplied sealant and stuck it back on, all good now.

There is still a small oil leak though. I think some of it may be due to the oil thats caked all over the bottom of the engine and steering arm and all that, theres quite a bit really. That said, I used the car to see how it went last night, got back and stuck a bit of card underneath, after about 15 minutes there were a few small spots but ive looked today and there seems to be a lot more. The cam covers are clean as a whistle, so ive no idea where that oil is coming from. Before all this work the oil made a generally circular pattern on a piece of card, not its more like a T, roughly central under the car, with the join on the T being about in line with the back of the sump. Any ideas?

Whats more, there is still this ongoing oil smoke. Every time i stop the car after its got warm (i.e. a couple of minutes) theres smoke coming from behind the engine. It looks like its coming off some of the exhaust pipes in the back of the engine, but its very hard to spot. At times there is quite a large amount of smoke. Im 99% certain its oil thats burning for whatever reason. There are some brown patches on some of the exhausts, is this likely to be the cause? If so, will it go away over time or require a good clean?

A few other things;

The only thing i couldnt find a home for after putting it all back together is the aforementioned piece of pipe. Theres one rubber mount i can see where it seems to live at the back of the plenum but i dont know where it connects to. Any ideas? Out of that rubber mount is quite a resonably high air flow.

[doug4293]

check ur coolant pipes at the rear of the engine, and the ones going into the hbv, i did c cam covers thinking it was them leaking oil, (they were a bit) but was coolant pfron the hose split, between the block and hbv. still smelled oily as had dripped onto exhaust and was oil lying there from prev cam cover gasket leaks.

[kcl]

Right some answers;

Yes, the half moon on the right (from front of car) of the drivers side cam cover wasnt seated right. I took it off, reapplied sealant and stuck it back on, all good now.

There is still a small oil leak though. I think some of it may be due to the oil thats caked all over the bottom of the engine and steering arm and all that, theres quite a bit really. That said, I used the car to see how it went last night, got back and stuck a bit of card underneath, after about 15 minutes there were a few small spots but ive looked today and there seems to be a lot more. The cam covers are clean as a whistle, so ive no idea where that oil is coming from. Before all this work the oil made a generally circular pattern on a piece of card, not its more like a T, roughly central under the car, with the join on the T being about in line with the back of the sump. Any ideas?

Whats more, there is still this ongoing oil smoke. Every time i stop the car after its got warm (i.e. a couple of minutes) theres smoke coming from behind the engine. It looks like its coming off some of the exhaust pipes in the back of the engine, but its very hard to spot. At times there is quite a large amount of smoke. Im 99% certain its oil thats burning for whatever reason. There are some brown patches on some of the exhausts, is this likely to be the cause? If so, will it go away over time or require a good clean?

A few other things;

The only thing i couldnt find a home for after putting it all back together is the aforementioned piece of pipe. Theres one rubber mount i can see where it seems to live at the back of the plenum but i dont know where it connects to. Any ideas? Out of that rubber mount is quite a resonably high air flow.

The extra tube will be the auto box breather tube, does not connect anywhere 

[Steve Pearce]

Really? Because there are 3 tubes coming out of it, and it looks as if all 3 of the tubes all come from the same place (1 input, 3 outputs!)

[RobG]

A picture speaks volumes Pipe size/diameter :question

[Steve Pearce]

Il take one next time i go outside

[RobG]

Pipe size???

[Steve Pearce]

Its about 2mm in diameter (i dont know that in 1000th's of an inch, sorry ) and about 4 feet long.