Unidentified oil leak?

Digitalchaos

Registered User
There is an oil leak from the engine bay which runs down basically behind the crank pully and coats nearly the entire underside in oil. A black plastic cover exists behind the large pulley, I assume covering some kind of shaft. It is in the basic shape of a large cylinder. The underside of this is also covered in oil.

Originally I thought this was the valve cover gaskets, but they appear as if they were replaced & the origin of the oil does not look like it was entirely from that area.

Any ideas? Thanks..
 
couple of thoughts

Sounds like it's either the lower intake gasket, timing cover gasket, or maybe your oil pressure switch. You sould pressure wash your engine bay, that will help you pinpoint it sooner. I had to do that with my xr7 a couple of times.
 
If the oil is coming down above the crank, then it's not likely the seal on the timing cover.

Instead look above. Are you sure it's not Super Charger fluid coming down from a blown front snout seal?
 
There is a small supercharger leak, but it seems to need more fluid once every thousands of miles. I think too small for this. The top is currently off the supercharger. This coating has accumulated on many of the lower suspension & frame components. In addition, I was losing oil recently, a quart or more per oil change. It definately does not burn it.

I have to assume an oil leak, so I assumed it was valve covers. But with more open space to see those now, they appear replaced. Blue seals visible from underneath. There was oil accumulated on top of the covers around the lower bolts however. Just doesn't seem all this oil would be from here, especially on that cover behind the crank pulley.

Thanks for the help so far..
 
I'd be thinking maybe the intake manifold then maybe? On my Ranger there was a touchy part in the valve cover gasket where it was close to the intake manifold. A similar tough to seal area might exist on the SC.

Maybe someone that has had that area apart can comment.
 
I'd definitely clean the engine down first, even just using a couple of cans of spray cleaner & then hosing it off. I'd then take the plastic shroud off the balancer and leave it off for a week to observe for leaks. If you've checked your front valve cover bolts and there's no sign of a leak, then my experience has been both the timing cover gasket & the front crank seal (which is set in the timing cover) are prone to leaking. On mine, I really tightened-up on the numerous timing cover bolts when I had to replace a water pump and then I replaced the crank seal. When you very carefully remove the whole balancer unit (easier if you unbolt the pulley section first) with a suitable puller, check to see that there's no fractures in the alum. balancer casing; because they do fatigue with age and make sure you use a NEW crank bolt when you re-install it. I believe you now have to ask Ford for a 3.8 Mustang bolt, because the SC is no longer listed. That big bolt about $5 with the washer should in fact be slightly longer than the one you take out.
Hope that helps, Jim.
 
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