OIL LEAK

[ALLRYZE]

Is anyone familiar with what might cause an oil leak to show up on the drivers side, engine compartment, lower frame area that is located below the exhaust manifold? (in my case, below the 4 tube headers).

I made a fast survey of the engine after driving the GT about 30 miles in 94 degree heat to an Atlanta restaurant and back Sunday. It sat for about 2 hours while at the restaurant. When I started it to return to work, I was enveloped in a cloud of smoke and quickly saw the interior of the clam-shell engulfed in smoke in my rear view mirror. The A/C began to cool so I assumed it was not belt related and heard no supercharger belt noise nor the typical rubber burning smell from one of those. I attempted to raise the clam but this car is black, the shell was still extremely hot from the sun and previous engine heat so, I hopped in and headed to I-75 and watched gauges, listened for any anomaly. As soon as I passed the first 200 yards, the smoke cleared ( determined it likely burned off the headers after the fact ), all gauges were normal and no more visible smoke or unusual noise.

Drove the car 30 miles back to air conditioned storage shed at work and opened the clam with a cloth rag to avoid the heat. Spotted very clean engine oil below the drivers header that is trapped within a sort of aluminum galley area in the frame. The oil was so hot (likely from the headers only an inch or so from it) the oil was bubbling like lava. I checked the dipstick and it still shows full and very clean oil. At this point, I'm unclear of the oil was dripping onto the header while I was parked and waiting to burn off or if it is a lower leak area and got blown up onto the header on the way down and I didn't notice any smoke. These cars vent so well, it could have been burning off on the way down.

Any thoughts from anyone or recommendation for an Atlanta GT tech / dealership? I don't think I want to trust this one to my local Ford dealer nor do I want to pull it into the Honda store I manage.

I'm taking the easy way out here in an attempt to see if anyone has had a similar experience. Still haven't found time to go back and look closer now that it has cooled off from Sunday. This is car #2 of 2 GT's I own and my 4th overall. My others were bone stock and never had an oil leak issue. It was previously modified before me with a dropped pulley and also has the complete Ford Performance exhaust from the headers all the way out the rear. It has been driven approximately 6 times in the past 6 months for a total of 100 miles with no issues and was driven "much" harder during those short drives than on Sunday.

I can call around in Atlanta for a GT tech and store and possibly locate the leak with a little time spent, a bright light and one of my techs. I've learned that most of the guys here on the Forum, have experienced just about everything that can happen and/or is inherent to the car so taking a chance someone has had a similar experience. I've attached a photo for reference.

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[nota4re]

OK, driver's side and below exhaust. The candidate leak sources - somewhat prioritized from high to low probability;

1. Poorly seated Oil Filter Housing - You can feel around filter cannister and see if it is the source of leak.
2. Oil pressure sending unit - may be hard to see from the top, but it's right there and uses 1/8" NPT threads.
3. Oil Cooler and/or oil cooler fittings

I would imagine that it would be relatively easy to determine which of these is the culprit if you can get it on a lift and take just the mid-pan off.

I don't think that it is anything expensive or complicated but you want to address before the headers may have an opportunity to ignite it.

Wish you were closer as we'd be glad to take a look....

 

[texas mongrel]

Did you recently have an oil change? That could account for the pool of oil - almost impossible to change the filter without a little dripping down exactly where your picture shows. Otherwise, my bet is bad filter o-ring or cracked filter housing

 

[CanadaGT]

Silly thought... have you checked by the halfshafts? Rub under the bottom of them as oil has been known to migrate past the splines and cause a mess. Just speaking from experience.

 

[Cadster]

Did you recently have an oil change? That could account for the pool of oil - almost impossible to change the filter without a little dripping down exactly where your picture shows. Otherwise, my bet is bad filter o-ring or cracked filter housing

This exact scenario happened to me. Poor quality oil change. Shortly after I acquired my GT in March, I took it to my local Lamborghini dealership to have them install my new Bridgestone’s. They called me up, and said we have bad news, some oil is oozing out the bottom cover. I called up Dexter Allen (GT master tech who lives in NC and has a solid reputation and following on this forum). He immediately told me to relax. He said something to effect that GT’s rarely leak oil, and when they do, it’s not on that side. He told me that it’s a sloppy oil change. He gave the Lamborghini master tech specific instructions for wiping down the leak (some of the under paint can be rubbed off if precautions are not taken). He told me leave over night, then run it for a while, and then check for any leaks. Much like he predicted, no further issues. Naturally I was very thankful.

 

[Magic]

Silly thought... have you checked by the halfshafts? Rub under the bottom of them as oil has been known to migrate past the splines and cause a mess. Just speaking from experience.

That thought can to me as well.

Was on a car event trip in my 06' GT and stopped for a group lunch provide by a local Porsche dealer. Just as I got my food the dealer/GM came in and said I had a major oil leak under my car. Went out, looked it over, got on the phone and talked toRich (GTGuy) and decided it was from a halfshaft leaking (this after supposedly having it already fixed twice). Luckly there was a Ford dealer 3 blocks away who said they had a mechanic with GT experience. Overnighted the parts and we were back on the road late the next day. Good thing the event organizer had an extra car we could use so we could continue with the trip till the GT was fixed.

 

[ALLRYZE]

Thank you all for some great advice and where to look. I can eliminate the half shafts as had that issue on a previous GT where the harder bolts were installed. No matter how much lock Tight and re torquing we did, after a few hard track runs, we discovered them loose and of course, oil slung into the drivers side.
This car came to me as is and have driven less than 150 miles. Until the longer drive as described on a darn hot day in Atlanta, did it leak. I was actually told it had been recently serviced so possibly it is the filter. The oil is slightly over full and as clean as out of the bottle. As the photo depicts, it’s very clean there too.
How far am I from you nota4re? I’m skeptical of folks touching my cars and Aaron Scott in Thomasville, Ga is a $1400 trailer haul.

I’ll see if our techs can get a mirror in the area and look for some of the areas you guys mentioned. Will try to remove the middle pan as suggested too. Sounds like it can come off independent of the others? My apology for my GT ignorance. I’m quite at home with a 427 Chevy or M22 Muncie and was one of the few who managed to get my 3rd gear Ricardo re-welded by EBI when I spun it but but that was handled by a group of very sharp guys and companies who assisted.

Im always grateful for those taking to time to provide feedback. C-19 is getting in my way and too many irons in the fire to get her into our shop.

Stay safe all.

 

[thegtguy]

Feel free to give me a call if you need anything.

 

[ALLRYZE]

Thank you Rich,

We pulled it onto an alignment rack so we could remove two of the under-panels. Turns out the green color ( doesn't show up that well in my attached photo ) came from the compressor oil. We located the charge level of 18.0 oz so are evacuating the system now. Something really caught my techs eye ( A Honda tech that is ) when the high pressure was running at the 250 mark and as I increased the RPM, it moved exponentially up to and beyond 300. That is extremely higher than a Honda vehicle charge. We think this may possibly explain the reason the extreme heat and compressor located close to the headers, let off some pressure. Does this sound familiar to you in your experiences? Once evacuated, we will see how much Freon was in the system. The AC blows extremely cold before evacuation but will see if it is over the 18 oz limit.

 

[ALLRYZE]

Okay....problem discovered and solved. Some knucklehead charged the system to nearly double the 0.51KG / 18OZ to .8788KG / 31 OZ of Freon. Amazingly, the compressor managed to save itself by the blow off valve and dumped the green oil onto the engine frame.

The oil filter cap, plug, sending unit is dry but you guys headed us in the right direction to hunt down the culprit. The residual oil was still very much yellow and the dead giveaway to my service manager and tech who, are the best in the business ( if you have a Honda that is ). Appears the compressor may be a stock Ford item if it ever gives up but we also noticed the alternator was a reman so who knows who was getting their hands into those areas. The A/C charge was definitely an armchair event with no proper means to monitor the pressure or oil recovery.

Thank you all again. I've had so much great luck with my other GT's that I've never had to unbutton the floor pans but once they removed the zillion screws, it reveals all you need.