[Beefy59]

Hi Everyone.
I run a '94 164 super with the 12v engine. The engine was recently replaced with something slightly earlier and bodged (expensively!) but was running ok for a little while. Now one or both cylinder head gaskets has gone due to an epic overheat due to a fouled radiator (I think - I've replaced that now) and I think I have maybe fixed the gasket leak with a liquid metal treatment (I'm sure it's really wishful thinking, but it does actually seem to have worked!! - will try to keep updates going on this!)
However: There has also been a fairly big oil leak into the valley of the V - about a litre every 200 miles - and the garage that replaced the engine thinks that it might be the head gasket leak. But in the meantime the oil seems to have flowed down the valley and into the clutch, which is now slipping badly.
I don't want to replace the clutch if the root of the problem lies elsewhere, so my question is: is there any oil feed / pipe running in the valley of the Busso V6 that could be the source of the oil?
Any help / suggestions / info very gratefully received!!
Steve

 

[ChrisS]

There is an oil feed in the V, although it is internal. The oil pressure senders are a known source of leaks and they sit right where you are getting oil from, so worth investigating. the oil feed from block to heads that might be leaking is usually pretty sound though. There is a hollow dowel with a rubber gasket/O ring that usually provides a good seal so a bad leak there seems unlikely. Another potential source of oil would be the distributor, although not normally massive amounts.

 

[Beefy59]

Thanks Chris! That makes sense. Might that be suggested by the oil light staying on for a few seconds after startup, even though the gauge rises quickly to a "normal" reading? (Whatever a "normal" reading is!)aranoid:

 

[Avocet]

There are separate senders for the light and for the gauge. As Chris says, both are at the gearbox end of the valley. The larger one is for the gauge and points vertically upwards. If it were my car, I think I'd try to (even temporarily) put a mechanical gauge into the hole for the light sender and see what the pressure is really doing. 4 Bar cold, immediately after startup would be good. It drops a lot when hot though. Anything above about half a Bar at idle is fine when hot.

 

[Beefy59]

There are separate senders for the light and for the gauge. As Chris says, both are at the gearbox end of the valley. The larger one is for the gauge and points vertically upwards. If it were my car, I think I'd try to (even temporarily) put a mechanical gauge into the hole for the light sender and see what the pressure is really doing. 4 Bar cold, immediately after startup would be good. It drops a lot when hot though. Anything above about half a Bar at idle is fine when hot.

That's fantastic - thankyou!
Incidentally - this is a plug for Steel Seal head gasket repair! After years sitting waiting for the funds to repair the engine (blown head gasket leading to apparently huge water leak into sump leading to disintegrated main bearing (which was totally missing when the sump was dropped!) leading to wrecked crankshaft - the radiator was also blocked. But I didn't find that out until in a position where I could not turn the engine off to stop the temperature from going through the roof. Which equals one (or two!) blown gaskets, oil in water etc etc. Read about Steel Seal in Evo magazine, tried it (after fitting a new radiator!) and 5 days later I honestly think it has worked! No smoke / steam, no water loss, stable temperature etc. Now to fix the oil leak and see if I can rescue the clutch - LOL! :thumbup:

 

[scottyf]

Even if its only temporary least it buys you some time.

 

[v6junky]

Problem with that stop leak gunk is that it does not work very well with the wet cylinder liners. It may cause problems if you rebuild the engine later on as it gets everywhere and stuffs up areas it shouldn't. Typically after an overheat issue the heads pull away from the block and leave the gaskets sitting loose. In my case it was so bad I had water dripping out onto the floor. On rebuild, we found that the gaskets themselves were undamaged. A better interim fix would be to retighten the heads. The 12v doesn't use stretch bolts so it's doable. If that works, flush that crap out of the system quick unless you are planning on junking it...

 

[Avocet]

+1 for attempting a re-torque (if the Steelseal doesn't work). When i bought the current 164, it arrived on a transport (hadn't been taxed or MOTd for years). One of the first things I noticed was how shiny and new the coolant header tank was, and how crystal clear blue the coolant was.

...a bit TOO crystal clear in fact...

Sure enough, after the first 20 miles there was oil in the coolant. Luckily, nothing coming the other way though!

Well, I had nothing to lose by re-torquing the head bolts (cold), so I tried it. I went to the upper limit of the specified torue - plus a bit more, just by "feel". It worked! That was 5 years ago, so I think I had the last laugh on the vendor!

 

[Beefy59]

Thanks for the advice! It's all tight and dry for the moment but.. I also have no idea how long the engine was sitting around, but the garage that put it in only did a simple compression test and carried on... I may end up calling on Steel Seal's "lifetime guarantee" but I'm also keeping my fingers very firmly crossed!

 

[Beefy59]

Thanks again... I think I'll need to buy a decent torque wrench for this bit!