Yesterday I finished doing my first timing belt thinking everything went smoothly. The car is running great with all new pulleys and belts, even a running hot problem was fixed with a new water pump. After a good test run, boosting through all the gears and whatnot, I let her rest easy for the night. Today, lo and behold, an oil leak coming from the timing case, right below the crank pulley. I haven't gotten the chance to crack her open and find the source of the leak, but from what I have read on various forums is that one of the bolts for the tensioner goes into (or near?) an oil gallery. I'm thinking this is where my leak has sprung as it only seems to leak while the engine has oil pressure. I have gone out and bought some thread sealant, I'm just waiting on the engine to cool off before I break out the tools again.

So my fellow Canadian DSMers my question for you is, where else could this leak be coming from? All of the old seals have not been touched, so I'm hoping it's not any of those. Whatever knowledge you can toss my way would be great to make sure my search is as thorough as possible

You will have to take it apart anyway.
I had similar problem after new engine was put it, it turns out i had loose oil pump sprocket pulley.
Glad i caught in time

Did you do a BSE? If so there's a possibility the block off plug is leaking.

There's also a chance you might have the belt too tight, which can cause the oil pump to chew into the casing, which destroys the front case and pump shaft and will cause a bad leak. You need to pull it apart and pull off the oil pump sprocket then pull out the seal, you will see very quickly if the front case is damaged.

@Alex, The oil pump sprocket is nice and tight, no leaks!

@Jason, No BSE, but the balance shaft seal isn't leaking. The oil pump seal wasn't leaking either when I gave it a look.

What I did find, as I had thought, was the lower tensioner bolt leaking oil. Luckily none of the oil ended up on the balance shaft belt of the timing belt, but I still wiped them both down thoroughly to make sure there was no contamination. I also found out that the balance shaft tensioner pulley also passes through an oil gallery. Turns out there was an even smaller leak behind that pulley. So I ended up pulling on some thread sealant on bolt of the leaky bolts last night. I'm going to fire her up again later tonight after the sealant has fully cured and I'll be back with an update tomorrow.

Good news! It looks like the sealant on the lower tensioner bolt and the balance shaft pulley bolt has fixed the leak!

You should do a balance shaft elimination.

This will make any timing belt job in the future a cake walk.

I have a few questions for you

1. Do you have a list of the cars modifications ?
2. How much boost are you running ?
2. are you new to the DSM Game ?

1. ECMLink V3, Wideband, 4-Bar MAP sensor, Fuel pump re-wire, aluminum charge/intake piping, Evo 9 BOV. Not a whole lot honestly. I'm trying to build a proper support network for mods that will actually add horsepower.
2. MAP sensor peaks at 14.5 psi. I never took out the wastegate solenoid restrictor, but based on that boost level, I would guess it had been removed by the previous owner.
3. I guess you could say new. I've had the car for a little over two years now.

Glad to see a newb doing it the right way!! Welcome!

Awesome are you running Speed density?
Do you have any plans or goals for future mods

Matt you going to armdrop this year?

@ Bryan - Thanks!

@ Kent - I was considering running SD when I bought the MAP sensor, but I figured I would wait until next year to try it. I definitely have plans, but over this winter I need to do an engine rebuild. My compression is well below service limit on cylinder 4 and the other three are at the service limit. Once that's all said and done, I was thinking a 14b and probably a front mount IC, 650 or 750cc injectors, FP exhaust manifold, and a 3 inch turbo back, just as a starting platform. If we're talking late game future goals, I've got some crazy ideas!

@ Jay - I've been trying but these rain days have made it difficult. I'm planning on the September armdrops, but I can imagine everyone else that has missed them is also. I may also make an appearance at shannonville on the 31st.

What is the compression for each cylinder.
I would not waste your time with a 14b turbo you could make more power with a hair dryer lol.
you can buy a 68HTA FP turbo right now for cheap

A good FMIC is a sound investment.
speed density is also better

is your fuel pump stock?

Cylinder 1 through 3 is around 130 dry, cylinder 4 is 105 dry and 125 wet. I'm thinking the rings on 4 are pretty much gone.

I was thinking about a 68HTA, but I thought I might want to ease myself into a bigger turbo. So maybe a hair dryer will be the next upgrade

I'm still on the stock fuel pump. I figure a 255lph is probably a good idea when I toss bigger injectors in.

68hta a big turbo lol. Matt your a funny guy

My 68hta is flowing 52.5 lbs a min, and I think any turbo under 55 to 60 lbs/min is small

I am just advising if you are going to do all the work to swap the turbo your better off getting the 68HTA there price is relay low right now.
you can just set the boost lower with a better turbo to get better results and you will be happy down the road when it's time to turn the boost up to 30 psi or more =).

I've heard FP sells their exhaust manifold and the 68HTA as a package and it goes on sale during the holiday season, so I might just have to go that direction.

Your point about turning up the boost later is so true though. I can always take it easy with the 68HTA and crank it up later. I cant really do that with an already maxed out T25. I'd say I'm sold on the idea.

Just one sensor more and you can run SD the GMIAT.
It is more efficient and a lot easier to tune.

Wtf Matt....

So I took all the belts off the car as well as the tensioner... And spun the oil pump.. Oil poured out the hole that the tensioner bolt uses.

For some context and future referencing if anybody else runs into this problem, Jay had told and shown me that he had a really bad oil leak which he had previously tried to seal but was still leaking (I can't remember exactly where he thought it was). On the forum, you see him running into the same issue as me, but on facebook, we had a little chat about it maybe being the front case gasket leaking into the tensioner bolt hole or the bolt hole being in an oil gallery. I suggested the fix I used in this thread, as it could rule out having to remove the front case.

Let us know what happens Jay!

Well aperently it's common.

I put thread sealer on the tensioner bolts and spun the oil pump with a drill and it did not leak. So hopefully tomorrow the car will go back together and be good..

After about 100 bucks in seals I did not need.

I figure that if the wrong size bolt is used it could penitrate threw the cast. Because I've never had this issue on the many dsms.. And alot more tensioner replacements I have done.

P. S. MATT are you going to shannonville this Friday?

Nah, this weekend and none of the next events line up with my school schedule. Racing season is over for this guy

Poopy