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V8 oil leak.


Aragorn

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As per the threads in the Range rover forum i've got myself a P38 thats needing some TLC.

Failed its mot on brake issues, exhaust leaks that i cant even find and some other minor stuff (like me not plugging in the headlamp :P)

The engine is very oily underneath, and the boy that sold me it told me it had a leaking rear main seal. However i noticed that most of the oil seemed to be coming from the front end. When i came back from the MOT with the engine fully warmed up, i noticed it was actually dripping readily onto the floor and formed a decent sized puddle in a few minutes ticking over.

Tracing the drips i realised it was dripping off the wiring harness to the lambda sensor on the right hand side of the engine (UK Drivers side), having run down the loom from somewhere above. Quite hard to see where exactly its coming from, but i think its maybe coming from what i presume is the oil pressure switch, which seems to run across the top of the wiring loom that runs down to the sensor but its buried in behind everything.

i took some pics, lambda harness where its dripping from:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/appxzw298p5ofym/2016-09-07%2018.13.46.jpg?dl=0

then a more upwards angle showing what i'm guessing is the pressure switch, you can just about see it above the oil filter with a hex nut then a white area:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/srkmfcoy2nqndtm/2016-09-07%2018.14.09.jpg?dl=0

Thoughts?

The leaky main seal i was going to ignore until i got it on the road and ensured there was no other issues, but i cant ignore this leak at the rate its pissing out!

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It's the usual advice with an oil leak that has made a mess. Clean up everything, and then run it to see where it is really coming from. As you say, it can run onto cables or edges then run along....

If it really is just a sensor or pressure switch it is leaking from, the obvious first thing to try would be to see if it stops by just tightening it up. Failing that, take it out clean the surfaces and a new sealing washer, assuming the sensor still works.

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Had a little bit of time today, not enough to do a full clean up but had a look at the rocker cover gaskets and from what i can see, they're sealing just fine, Theres no oil up around the heads/rover cover area, it all starts further down. 

Theres a pulley/tensioner thing for the serpentine belt thats in the way of me really seeing whats going on, so going to try and remove that and see if that gives me the room i need to see whats going on and get in about it with degreaser!

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Ok so i pulled the belt tensioner, alternator and alternator bracket out so i could get a decent look at what was going on.

at first i was somewhat concerned at what i saw:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7zjefcz49b7df2l/2016-09-11 11.06.09.jpg?dl=0

It looked like the oil was appearing from the head gasket joint. After worrying for a few minutes, i decided to remove the oil pressure switch anyway and see what i found:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kek272hrzj1ct2k/2016-09-11 11.24.55.jpg?dl=0

Some utter mongtard has stacked a rubber oring and a copper washer covered the whole thing with half a tube of the non-setting blue hylomar stuff, and screwed it in. The copper washer has cut half thru the oring, and bent itself to the shape of the conical seat. Luckily the seat appears to be undamaged.

From what i can gather, new sensors are provided with both a copper washer and an o-ring. Earlier engines sealed with the copper washer against a flat sealing face, newer ones use the o-ring against the conical surface. Someone has attempted to use both, and smothered it all in gloop when it didnt work.

Still somewhat puzzled as to how the oil up around the head has got there though... Maybe the head gasket is seeping, or maybe its leaked out of the valley and run down? Thoughts?

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true enough!

Will get a new switch/seal and hopefully that sorts it out. Or at the very least stops the oil pissing out like exxon valdez. A mild seeping of oil and the odd drip i can put up with for now.

Its just annoying that the area of the head is completely obscured once its all reassembled, so i cant even keep an eye on it without taking it all apart again to inspect.

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