I've been noticing considerably more oil on the ground over the last few weeks beyond the normal drip or three. Seems to favor the driver's side so I went poking around today. I found this small crack in the VC gasket and I'm guessing that's the culprit. It's difficult to pin point the actual source, beyond the obvious crack being high on the list of likely candidates, due to the general gudge on the side of the engine making everything look sorta oily and wet. I could spray it down but again, I think the crack seems like a smoking gun. Anyone else ever have this happen? The crack is directly below the bolt so the metal insert is right there. I remember the gaskets being a b!tch to get seated correctly when I installed them 40+k ago, not looking forward to doing this again on an SAI truck.

 

You might want to try the PCV mod if you haven’t already.

 

Yeah, that's been done. Part of me was hoping that was clogged or something (a big part) but upon disassembly everything is fine there.