Paul and crew:  FWIW, I had a 4 year minimal leak pretty much since the
beginning RPM's from my Boston Bob rebuild that now has 50k+ on it.  It got
worse last winter to the point of not only leaving the rear of the van
oily, but I was leaving stains most everywhere I parked.  It seemed to
originate from the rear crank pulley seal area and I assumed that was the
problem.  Then the list dished out one of those Positive Crankcase
Ventilation threads and that got me wondering if mine was clogged or
not.  Around the end of April, I changed to the  spring/summer oil and all
of a sudden it stopped if by magic.  The only other thing I did was to ream
out that copperish-looking heater plate in the hose from the breather tower
in the engine compartment and the big rubber air intake boot.

My symptoms over the years were pretty much an oily dipstick area and I'm
now thinking that I had excessive crankcase pressure somehow and the
dipstick was the "path of least resistance".  By opening up that breather
hole, I'm guessing that provided relief.  Not sure what that says about the
overall condition of the motor, but it still runs strong and the
compression is good.  At $5/qt. it's good to have backed into a solution of
this nagging problem.  My gas mileage took a noticeable turn for the better
after this procedure as well.

I'd be all ears as to what I did to solve this and why what happened
happened.  Best news was that it didn't cost anything to "fix".

DM&FS

At 11:36 PM 6/22/2006, Paul Guzyk wrote:

>I recently purchased an 84 Vanagon with a 93 Subie 2.2 that a PO installed.
>
>The engine has good compression (180-185 all around) runs well,
>sounds nice, lots of power etc.  The top of the engine is clean and
>dry, the bottom of the timing belt covers are a little oily.
>
>I just went on an 800 mile drive.  At the end of the drive, the rear
>hatch was covered in a thin film of what appears to be motor oil.
>Even the license plate and rear window were covered in this oil.
>
>Has anyone seen this?
>
>Could the engine be leaking oil and by some sort of 'Venturi effect'
>it is getting sucked onto the rear hatch of the van?  Or is the oil
>coming from somewhere else?
>
>
>
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