Oil Leak

[redmaestro]

Hi Everyone,

I need your help again!! I have an oil leak, I am 99.9% sure where its coming from but I cant fix it. I hope these photos will help me explain it a bit better. When I try to tighten the bolt (the one with the red dot) it just goes round without tightened up. It does thread into the hole, but only goes finger tight. I assume that the thread has partly gone inside the hole and therefor isnt tighening up properly. Inturn, i think this is causing my oil leak. :banghead:

If that is the case, what are my options? I can provide other photos if necessary.

Thanks in advance

redm

PS. Car is an E reg 2Ltr EFI

[hornmeister2000]

Can't quite see where this is - is that the top of the cylinder head with the distributor in red? Reason I'm confused is that my 2.0 EFi has a black distributor. If the thread's gone on the screw, you could get a new one from Rover. If it's on the head, then I would suggest getting the hole re-drilled and getting an oversized screw for it. You could also have a gasket problem

[quaddamager]

Xcuse my poor technical English but this is what I think

Your bolt` thread is damaged or worse the one on the head gasket.

You can put some siliconic glue on a new bolt` thread leave it for 10mins. and then force screwing it inside. I guess this should fix the leakage.

If not, it might be the case of drilling bigger hole and replace with a bigger bolt.:(

Hope this helps,
Quadd

[redmaestro]

Yes, it is on the right-hand side of the cylinder head by the red dizzy cap. I unscrewed the bolt to check its condition and the thread on the bolt is fine - albeit slightly oily. I cleaned it up and put it back in, but it just wont tighten. I have gone round the other bolts and they are nice and tight. Looks like I'll have to re-drill the hole and hope it cures my leak

[MaestroMatt]

My cam shaft cover weeps oil as well for a simlilar reason. My cover is cracked around the bolt-hole and I am afraid to torque it down enough for fear of damaging the repair job I did. I agree that you will have to drill the hole out and re-tap it with a slightly larger thread; although it is not a serious problem, it can be quite annoying to leave small puddles of oil all over the place!

[E_T_V]

Get a helicoil insert fitted. Sounds like just the thing for this small problem. I think they all have a weakness for oil leaks here and someone has tried to cure the leak by overtightening the bolt stripping the thread in the alloy head, (quite easily done).

Not sure the helicoil or drilling it out will cure the oil leak though, but you can hope! :rage:

[redmaestro]

I just have been to town to throw some junk in the skips, and when I arrived the engine was p:censored: ssing oil! When I got home, I checked the dipstick and it was well below the min line.

I cleaned the area around the bolt, put in some new oil to the max line and started her up. Straight away, oil started seeping out the joint - right where the bolt is. I have gone for the silicon glue idea, and when I was cleaning the hole where the bolt goes into, i found loads of metal bits - a bit like iron filings. Is does sound like the bolt has been over-tightened. :o

I think im gonna to a Basil Fawlty and give the car a darn good thrashing with a branch from a nearby tree!!!

[H48HPE]

if you know how to drill and tap a hole yourself id do that. just dont break the tap off in the hole. but it looks a big bolt so youd have to try hard to break it. ive broke a tp off before whilst i was doing the bench fitting part of my apprenticeship and it made me swear i was making a tool makers clamp, wot a nightmare.

if its alloy castings sould be easy. make sure you drill well though

andy

[redmaestro]

What a knightmare!!!!! This morning, I went to as many garages as I could to see if someone could repair it. Either they said " Sorry mate, we dont do re-tapppin" or " We can do it - in 2 - 3 weeks time !!". At least I left them a nice big dirty oil puddle for them to clean up - heh heh! I drove about 10 miles and lost about 4ltrs of oil. I had to keep stopping so I could top it up.

Anyway, this afternoon, to save me from losing more oil, I rang up more garages and someone said they will try and fix it for me. I have just dropped the car off, and they will work on it tomorrow.

Fingers crossed - lets see if the garage can fix it. I'll let you know what happens......

Redm

[redmaestro]

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee. My car is now sorted - but my pocket is £176. lighter. The garage had to helicoil that bolt after all. All i need to do now is to clean all the excess oil from the engine.

Another happy ending :) !!!

Thanks for all your help - redm