oil leaks everywhere

[scotts72heavyhalf]

So I bought this project from another board member and drove it home from Texas, it developed a oil leak in the first 150 miles and I was told this engine had 350 miles on a complete rebuild, runs strong and sounds tight and looked like new although some of the vacume lines were routed wrong, by the time I got home with my boys lots of small oil leaks appeared, so I put some dye in the oil and used a black light tp spot the locations and it would appear that both head gaskets and seeping pil, the timing cover, pan gasket and even the intake has a coolent leak. Tomorrow I am going to retork the heads, powerwash the engine and check again if the heads still seep oil, what would be the best gasket kit for the SBC with aftermarket vortec heads and a aftermarket intake if I have to pull it down to fix these? We are pulling the body this next week its on the build fourm "our 69C10 project" so I will have the sheet metal off the front as well to expose the engine, my guess is I am going to have to pull the engine and put it on a stand, replace every gasket and seal.

[truckdude239]

The pvc vavle not working? Is a start or bad blow by on the rings

[scotts72heavyhalf]

Thats the wierd thing, this engine runs like a top, no blow by, great vaccume at the guage, just seems like he put it togather poorly, he used felpro gaskets (he said) and a better intake gasket so it wouldnt leak, but I found what looks like rtv on the outside of the intake where I would bet he tried to stop a leak from the outside by pressing some in with a finger, now I could be wrong but thats my best guess, I dont know if retorking the heads will help, that is a very small amount of ozzing oil. and it does not have a PCV valve in the system, vents back into the aircleaner are nice and dry, no water in the oil, plugs clean ect. everything else points to a good rebuild.

[cdowns]

a good designed and well working PCV system is really essential to proper operation

personally if i had those problems i'd yank the engine ststarting with bearing clearances and proper torqueing// it's been my experience that they just dont do one shoddy job they tend to do in everthing they touch

[fastwillie 696969]

sound like maybe the gaskets were over torque and most likey squished and possible torn .i seen this happen alot from butchers in my dealership

[scotts72heavyhalf]

So it currently has three valve cover billet vents, two on the passenger side and one on the driver side, I made sure all the vacume lines were run correctly because they were all wrong including the brake vaccume and the advance for the dist. and the valve cover vent hose was even connected to the intake vaccume when I got to looking at things after we got home more, where would I put a PCV valve, just in the normal spot in the passenger valve cover that the billet vent is in going to the aircleaner?

[truckdude239]

rtv is normally used on teh intake ends

[litew8]

3 vents? PCV to carb I believe. Try and keep one vent on each side I guess.

[SkeksisNV]

My engine is setup with breather vent on passenger rear and pcv driver front. 3 breather vent is well more then what you need. If you are gonna pull the engine out, then I would do the same that CDowns suggested and check clearances also just to be on the safe side.
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[litew8]

When he said 3 breather vent, I question if that's including the PVC, or did it even have one?

Here's my setup - One breather, one PCV

[scotts72heavyhalf]

Thanks for the picture, that helps alot, yes the three vents include the PCV, mine goes from the same type of billet PCV into the air cleaner, not the carb, the other two are both forward, one on each valve cover. Should the PVC be routed to the carb instead of the air cleaner bottom nipple?

[Gumby]

"oil leaks everywhere"

Woh you know thats the built in GM rust proofing system.
Wait till the underbody has a nice slick sheen

[scotts72heavyhalf]

Its the shop floor I keep triping on and my nice powdercoated rearend thats getting so dirty and oily, I know its not that bad and every SBC has oil leaks, but I am too AR to not fix them.

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by scotts72heavyhalf

Its the shop floor I keep triping on and my nice powdercoated rearend thats getting so dirty and oily, I know its not that bad and every SBC has oil leaks, but I am too AR to not fix them.

Yea Im the type who would pour a quart of oil on the intake to add patina if you gave me some chromed out fancy painted engine

[1968SWBBigBlock]

Scott - yes you need to route the PCV valve back to the carb or manifold - it is not pulling a vaccuum going to only the air cleaner = or should I say not enough.
google the carb install guide to make sure that you get the right port - some are timed and others are open

[Gumby]

[scotts72heavyhalf]

Thanks guys I will look up the correct install for the eldelbrock carb I have, it has a plugged vacuum line on the front of the carb that is open and untimed, I pulled the bed, and all the front sheet metal besides the core support last night and I am going to retork the heads and snug the intake a bit, give it a power wash and check again for leaks, its not as bad as it looked from the drips, the head gaskets are just barely damp with oil, no drips, I just haven't found the drip culprit yet. I will post a few new pics on the build site today.

[Gumby]

OOps I just assuemd Q-jet, though since the eddy carbs are near clones, its probably the same place. Big pinky tip sizes port on the lower base.

Like the trans vacuum modulator, its always on the lower base, direct port to engine.

not metered port like stock vac advance uses in the mid or upper section
[I use direct port for mine]

[HEI451]

Just a random question, WHAT kind of OIL is in this engine? Dynosaur or synthetic??

As you are doing now, get the PCV system set up right first.

Also, there are two excellent gasket sealers out on the market today, one is semi-hardening Perma-Tex semi-hardening NUMBER 2 (YES. I know it is Perma-Tex, but it is leaps and bounds better than the old Number 2). Thge other comes form the motorcycle industry, is the same gray sealer around intake port holes on good performance intake manifold gasket sets, is named 'THREE-BOND 1194). It IS its own gasket, and is what most motorcycle main cases are sealed with, works alone. on gaskets, and rubber parts. Just get the gasket area good and clean, and dry, then apply sparingly, put it together, and let it sit over night, should work well. To remove, lacquer thinner or acetone takes it right off.

[scotts72heavyhalf]

OK, here is a pic of the engine before and then I plumbed the PCV into the front port of the carb, I retorked the intake to 11lbs acording to Edlebrock for the vortec heads, but I have not powerwashed the engine, we got the sheet metal all off the truck and its much easier to see of course, and since we are doing a cab swap and frame off basicaly I will probably have the engine out although I was hoping to leave it in and clear up around it when I paint the frame. Really looking at it, I see only small amounts of oil at the head/block location, more on the driver side, so we will try the tork specs and run it a bit to see if that stops some of the leaks which are pretty minor, they look worse on my shop floor, but its four or so nickle size spots on the floor. It has Mobile one currently that was reccomended by the PO at its first oil change, but it leaked on our trip home with standard oil. Check out our build "our new 69C10 project"

We really appreicate all the help

[oldblue1968chevy]

Nice motor, I thought you wanted to hook vac adv to full manifold vacumn, smog gets ported?..

[scotts72heavyhalf]

With the Vortec aftermarket heads, cam and lifter set-up along with the compression it gets too much spark lead if its in full manfold vac, it works perfect in that location, although I am no engine guru, I am leaning as I go so any thoughts are much appreicated.

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by scotts72heavyhalf

With the Vortec aftermarket heads, cam and lifter set-up along with the compression it gets too much spark lead if its in full manfold vac, it works perfect in that location, although I am no engine guru, I am leaning as I go so any thoughts are much appreicated.

Which ever one works best, use.

[oldblue1968chevy]

I welded in a washer on the vac adv can to limit it to around 10* vs the stock 20*

I got pix if u want em, then hooked to full vacumn I think you can buy a vette/maro vac can that is this alreayd?

[scotts72heavyhalf]

Sure, shoot me a pic if you have a chance.

Thanks