[vipergtrdj]

well i have been driving my swap around very easy for the past month - put maybe 300-400miles on it. Now the oil is not coming from the pan gasket, or anywhere outside of the engine but its coming from the exhaust. Its actually seeping out of where the header, and uppipe flanges bolt together. I had rebuilt the ej257 block and everything torqued down to specs, the heads are the only thing that has approx 50-60k on them, and I did not touch - besides the valve cover gasket, and the headgaskets. What are the chances its a valve seal ? If so how hard are they to do ?

It also only leaks when the car is off and cold - it doesnt leak when its running or after it just was running. Its a small amount - doesnt appear to be showing on the dipstick either but its def. oil.

any ideas ?

 

[Jake]

oil inside or outside the header?
Could be a bad or not sealed valve cover gasket or something silly like that

 

[vipergtrdj]

its coming from the inside of the exhaust -- i have felt around the entire engine and can not find oil anywhere -- and the exhaust is all dry cept for the bottom of the flange where the oil is seeping out from inside the header pipe. should i just pull the header off and feel around to find out which port its coming from ? i just moved and where i moved to they kind of frown upon tearing apart cars ... so thats why im trying to narrow the possibilities down first.

 

[Rooster]

Does it burn oil at all, meaning smoke? If there's oil in the exhaust, but not any smoke, I'd think it would have to be valve seals on some exhaust valve.

 

[kainam00]

I don't know how it would get there exactly, but maybe one of the seals in the turbo is leaking? That would seem like the most likely place for oil to actually *leak* into the exhaust piping.

 

[vipergtrdj]

I have checked the turbo and it appears its to be fine on that end. I have pulled the turbo off recently and all looked good. I think I am going to attempt to pull the header off and check individual exhaust ports to narrow it down.

also - when it first starts up there is a little bit of grey smoke, but I was always told it was from running the oversized injectors as it runs a tad bit rich.