Pissing oil

[Spoolin Hooligan]

I got a major oil leak. I really wouldnt call it pissing. But i drove it 70 miles and lost a quart and half. My under carrige is cover in oil. exhaust is smoking from oil on it. Its a mess, but i think its the rear main seal. Its hard to tell because of the frame running under the engine. But i was told it was a samll drip months ago. but since the car has been in the shop. thinking the seals dried up. I know you have to drop the trans. But what price am i looking at for repair.

 

[jasjamz]

You don't have to drop the transmission. Just remove the crossover pipe and the oil pan. The rear cap will come out and its a two piece seal. Use Right Stuff on the sides to seal not the little rubber/nail deals they offer. Look at the valve cover gaskets too theey are known to leak and run down the back of the block to the crossover at idle. If its the rear main it will sprinkle cardboard placed under the flexplate with the converter cover off and the car idling. Don't just take it in and say "it leaks, fix it please" or you may get clobbered at the register.

 

[whitehot1]

Replacing the rear main seal is not that hard of a job. Just make sure everything is as clean and dry as you can make it. I've done a few of them without any leaks afterward. It would be much easier if you have access to a lift but i did mine with a floor jack and jack stands under the front of the car.

Here is a link on how to replace the rear main seal.

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/engine/rearmain.html

 

[salvageV6]

Clean it up and find the leak first.
Just my .02 from fixing the wrong stuff too many times.

 

[Spoolin Hooligan]

Clean it up and find the leak first.
Just my .02 from fixing the wrong stuff too many times.

Ya I will do that. That's just what it think it is. Im selling it might just drop the price down. And sell it as is.

 

[TurboTGuy]

Clean it up and find the leak first.
Just my .02 from fixing the wrong stuff too many times.

Good advice, could be the front cover crank seal too. An easy fix.

 

[SIXBANGR]

could be the oil filter or the oil cooler o rings

 

[T- Type Tim]

check the turbo drain tube gasket... mine was leaking and caused the same type of leak you describe

 

[Spoolin Hooligan]

So it's been over a year since I had my car on the road. My buddy is a certified GM mechanic and he is fixing some of the issues I had with my Buick. #1 the oil leak. So it isn't the front or rear seal. It was the Fuel pump block off plate. The performance shop who changed my cam sensor magent look it off lost the bolts and then RTVed the plate back on after taking almost 3 months to fix the cam problem. So not going back there again. It was an easy fix

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[earlbrown]

What an interesting fix. I've never heard of anyone messing that up before. Why would you even pull that plate in the first place.


Just curious, but what is a cam sensor magnet? Is that what the performance shop told you?

 

[Spoolin Hooligan]

What an interesting fix. I've never heard of anyone messing that up before. Why would you even pull that plate in the first place.


Just curious, but what is a cam sensor magnet? Is that what the performance shop told you?

I'm guessing to take off the front cover.

The cam sensor is a magnetic sensor that tells the computer on start up what position the cam is at in relation to the crankshaft. The computer uses this information to determine when to deliver fuel to the proper cylinders.

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[earlbrown]

One of the bolts has to be removed to disconnect the fuel lines from a clamp, but the plate never has to come off to remove the timing cover.

The cam sensor is a hall effect sensor, not a magnetic pickup.

 

[Spoolin Hooligan]

Well I don't know what to say. These guys never seen a TB and like I said it took them 3 months to get it back to me. The owner said the magnet was in 3 pieces. And the problem I was having described what could go wrong if the sensor was messed up so it sounded good to me. I am also not a 3.8 expert . The RTV looked new so l have know idea. All I know is I'm not going back there

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[Spoolin Hooligan]

Maybe he meant the sensor was in 3 pieces that hall effect sensor produces a magnetic field and maybe there was a miscommunication but I coulda swore he said magnet

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[RmvBfrFlght]

The FWD 3.8 and 3800 engines used a magnet on the cam drive gear. They were in over their heads... Glad you found and fixed the leak, I hate oil leaks.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[earlbrown]

Well I don't know what to say. These guys never seen a TB and like I said it took them 3 months to get it back to me. The owner said the magnet was in 3 pieces. And the problem I was having described what could go wrong if the sensor was messed up so it sounded good to me. I am also not a 3.8 expert . The RTV looked new so l have know idea. All I know is I'm not going back there

Avoiding them might not be a bad idea in the future. Luckily you got it fixed and can put it behind you.

For your own personal knowledge, when the cam sensor fails, the engine switches over to batch fire mode (and will have a slightly different tone).... until you turn the engine off. After that it will not start again.

 

[Spoolin Hooligan]

Avoiding them might not be a bad idea in the future. Luckily you got it fixed and can put it behind you.

For your own personal knowledge, when the cam sensor fails, the engine switches over to batch fire mode (and will have a slightly different tone).... until you turn the engine off. After that it will not start again.

Thanks for the info. Ya I launched it. It back fired stated puttering like it was out of gas. Got it home Miraculously then it died in the drive way. Tried to start it ran for a second and crapped out again. But that's behind me. I'm just glad I'm not gonna be smoking when I drive it

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[Nascar83Fan]

Just to clear a few things up, what they called a cam sensor magnet isnt what it actually is.
They rtv'd the crank position sensor bracket in place after they lost the 2 bolts that hold hold it in place securely. How the heck that even worked like that is a miracle.
Also that sensor that is divide into 3 ears that has a 3 wire connector plugged into it you see in that bracket underneath the car is actually a crankshaft position sensor. There is a ring that passes by the ears, one is a low side reference signal and the other is the high side reference signal.
I've been under my TR a few times to know what alot of stuff looks like and where it is.
Definitely dont let that so called performance shop ever lay hands or eyes on your TR, in a matter of seconds anything done incorrectly to these cars can turn into major issues before you can say ut oh that didnt sound good.
You'll enjoy the car alot longer if you let someone that knows about how to work on the TR's and won't be paying tons of repair bills from inexperienced work done on the car.
Glad you got it fixed, enjoy your car.


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[earlbrown]

Now that makes more sense. A flaky crank sensor (also a hall-effect) can drive you berzek as sometimes it's not consistent with it's flakiness.

No idea why anyone would RTV a broken crank sensor bracket though. It would take less time to spend $18 for a new one than wait for the RTV (that won't work) to dry.

 

[Nascar83Fan]

What sucks is if the bracket bolts aren't super tight or if you don't check on them every so often to make sure they are tight, they'll loosen up over time to let the crank position sensor wiggle which is how you end up with a damaged crank position sensor.
Then you end up chasing an intermittent issue because of it.
On a side note to relieve alittle stress on the wires going to the crank sensor ( they are a tad too short really from the factory) , if you buy a new crank position sensor connector that you splice into the car wiring to replace the connector going into the sensor. You can chop off the old connector while leaving some wire length ( take off like a half inch or an inch at most of the factory wiring ) to see the order in which the pins are wired up and then splice in the new connector that has a bit more length of wire and secure the excess. As long as you make sure to weather proof the splice, it'll be fine. I did that on my car over 6 months ago ( when i changed out the crank position sensor cause it got damaged and went bad) there wasn't much slack in that wire so to relief tension from above bought a new crank position sensor harness and made the modification so it didnt strain the wiring to prevent it possibly getting broken wires. Made sure the bolts were super snug on bracket and all was good to go.

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