The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Pain in the bolt oil leak

Alright I've checked, rechecked, inspection mirrored, basicly everything I can think of and I can not find this dog gone leak.
It's on a '78 SBC 350 and I keep getting oil drops off the nose and bolts of the starter. It's not the valve covers, not the back of the intake, not the rear main, not the sender I just can't find it and it drips right on my exhaust. Before I drop the starter, is there an oil port plug behind the starter I can't see?? I can't stand this anymore and it's driving me crazy.

Look at the distributor, The gasket on my van was leaking and running down the right side.
I changed gaskets on the dizzy and leak was gone.

Also, there is a plug at the top of the block, behind the intake(partially covered by the intake) that I have seen leaking and running down the back of the engine. You can see it with a good mirror.

Possible oil sending unit behind intake,cam plug between engine and transmission,or distributor gasket.

I have seen the following missed and a small oil leak results. In front of the fuel pump on the front block face there is a bolt hole for holding the fuel pump rod when replacing the pump. It normally holds a short bolt to keep oil from leaking out the hole. When you remove the fuel pump you use one of its longer bolts by removing the short bolt and screwing in the long one. When the long bolt is removed and reinstalled in the fuel pump the short bolt is sometimes forgotten.

Thanks for the info guys but really I've already checked all of them several times over. Beltfed I did the fuel pump bolt missing early in the build, replaced it and have even helped out a friend with the same thing. The biggest thing I can not understand or find is why the oil is only comming off the nose of and the mounting bolts for the starter. Everything else is dry and clean. The first two things I thought of were the valve covers and the back of the intake, nothing but dry. The sender and the distributor the same thing, dry. Above the starter up to the plugs and valve cover, dry. The flywheel and inside the bell housing, dry. I took the inspection cover off to make sure and have left it off. I just have no ideas left where this dog gone leak is comming from.

If that's the only leak your small block has, consider yourself lucky, LOL. Anyway, maybe you have a starter mounting bolt hole that has a crack going into an oil passage. I would remove the bolt that has the drop and clean it and the hole with brake cleaner and install it with some sort of sealer. Maybe there's some oil residue inside the starter from a previous oil leak. Got some pictures that we can see?
Scott

Bluepen: ever thought about doing a u/v dye test ? We use a ultraviolet dye added to the oil to find leaks. Clean everything up good, add the dye, drive it about 200 mi & shine a u/v light around under the engine. That will point out the source of the leak. Good luck

Nvr thats something I would have never thought of. I do have one question on it for you , I've never seen the UV dye for oil only for AC units. Would you happen to know the brand name or someplace I might get from? I spent the other day on my back rechecking everything and cleaning again but ran out of time before I could run it to see if I could find anything. I was going to do that this weekend, it does not take very long for it to start driping so I'll try again and see what happens.

We get our dye from Napa or Car Quest. There is one for oil & one for a/c. They both do the same job.