Oil Leaks

Hi guys - I've just replaced the cambelts on my engine and while they were off I've fitted a new oil seal to the N/S camshaft. After a bit of a struggle all is now back together again, but the oil around the front of the engine is worse now than it was before I started, and now seems to be liberally coating both left and right hand cylinder banks.

Its not the crank oil seal (dry), its not the sump gasket (replaced - twice), and when I checked the belts they are also unaffected, so I don't think it is either of the camshaft oil seals.

However, I did not seal the cambox covers when I replaced them after timing the cams. I don't believe the oil gets as high as the gasket when the engine is running, so I didn't think that much oil could come out. But is this the reason? Should I be putting gasket sealant on the cambox covers before fitting them?

The leakage isn't that great, but the airflow blows it about a bit. I've got a few shows to go to this weekend, so any advice would be gratefully received!

Lauren

the hot oil probably wouldn't rise as high as the gasket area on the cam box covers but with the cam rotating the oil is literally fired at it like from a pressure washer so any small areas where its not sealed well will leak like a sieve and hot oil becomes fairly thin so would sneak out quite easily. best to replace both gaskets with new ones, shouldn't be too expensive and readily available from a decent motor factor

Doesn't one of Jamies' illustrations show him putting a bead of sealant around the area you describe, or is that not the same thing?

Thanks guys, I had a feeling that was the case. I was just being lazy and re-fitted the covers dry (I justified it with the lame excuse that I was going to check my tappet clearances at some point in the future ). The Haynes manual said the same thing too, which is a relief as I didn't fancy doing the camshaft seals again!

Lauren