04' has a rear oil leak that I'm trying to pin point before I pull the engine----again!! Its making a large mess in the driveway and whoever makes oil dry is now making a lot of money off me

The oil appears to be coming from the rear main seal since the inner bell housing has good traces of oil inside the inspection cover area. The odd thing is when I have the inspection cover off I don't see any oil dripping down the small section of the back of the block I can actually see. Of course you can't see anything from looking over the top of the engine next to the firewall since no room exists to see this area.

My question is could this be coming from the rear valley gasket and dripping down the rear/bell housing causing it appear to look like a rear main seal issue??

I didn't seem to have this problem until I changed from Rotella 15-40 to 10-40. You wouldn't think this slight change wouldn't cause the leak.

Now I will admit when I replaced the valley gasket, I missed a step on the RTV Sealant procedure out of the manual. I placed RTV on the points where the heads meet the block and then I placed the valley gasket in place. HERE IS THE ERROR-I did not place RTV on top of the Valley gasket at these same points before I set the intake down which has me questioning could this be the cause of the leak running down the back of the engine? I would think the oil in the valley area is misty where the oil in contact with rear main seal is much more significant.

 

Mine is doing the same thing. I have oil that drips down since I re-installed my motor too. Leaks all over the tranny pan and appears to be leaking from rear main seal, but when I look inside the small round cover on the bottom of the tranny its dry in there. So I am convinced that my leak is coming from the valley gasket and valve covers. I did not tighten them down enough when I was putting it back to gether. I too didn't use any sealant on the valled gasket. Can RTV be used to line the rubber gasket and put it back in place and stop the leak?

 

see https://landroverforums.com/forum/at...ear-valley-pdf

 

So you think a healthy does of RTV under the rubber gasket would help seal it up?

 

did you seal the corners between the head and the block with RTV?

 

As I mentioned, I sealed only the seem points were the block meets the head underneath the valley gasket and not on top which is an error from indicated in RAVE. I still am leaning toward the rear main but may pull the plenum so I could see it first hand before I go ripping the engine out again.

 

I am probably wrong but I would think if your valley gasket was leaking you would have a vacuum leak also. PM sent

 

Just a thought - if your oil separator (the squiggley thing on the valve cover with vac line going to intake) is blocked up, internal pressure can make oil vent in a number of places.

 

How can I check on that? That's something I need to check as I have noticed a slight bit of oil on TOP of the passenger side valve cover near where that thing goes into the valve cover

 

You extract it with some needle nose pliers and wash it off with solvent.