Slow Oil Leak

[mattmo]

Hello,

Did some maintenance on the truck today. While down there I noticed the oil pan was extremely grimy. I tested all the oil pan bolts, all I could reach were snug. I drained the oil and got about 3 quarts. Up to this point the truck has had 0 leaks. I added 6 quarts of 5w30 synthetic blend and noticed slow leak. After about an hour there was a few drops on the driveway. I'm wondering if the leak is above the oil pan, when the oil got down to three quarts it may have no longer covered the area that was leaking.

I got under the truck and noticed it seemed to be seeping from under the engine cooling fan. Picture below. Please forgive the bad angle and quality, hard to get my hands down there.


Any ideas on what could be causing this?

Thank you,

[Gary Lewis]

LOL!  The angle is such that I haven't figured out what I'm looking at.  However, the front main seal where the crank comes out of the pan/block combo is a frequent point of leakage.  And when it leaks the oil is thrown to the passenger's side as well as is blown back along the pan.

So is the passenger's side inner fender and the alternator gooey but the driver's side is clean?

[ArdWrknTrk]

Gary,
You can tell the larger pan bolt is the one going into the timing case.
So, I agree, it is the FMS.

Pulling the timing case can be a can of worms, because corrosion of the passages, questionable rubber in the harmonic damper, and the "while you're in there" aspect of the timing chain and water pump.

A gasket set with a SpeediSleeve is not much more than a regular timing gasket set, and you're assured of a leakproof seal.

[mattmo]

Very weird, I pressure washed the engine today. Cleaned it with brake cleaner and waited for it to leak again. Nothing. It seems like it stopped leaking entirely, for the moment at least. I guess at this point all I can do is continue to monitor it. Thanks for the tips!