'96 855 Oil Leak Behind Timing Cover

BigRed · Post by **BigRed** » 03 Jun 2011, 19:29

Thanks for the advice! I'll let the crank seal be, my hands will be full enough doing a timing belt & cam seals for the first time.

The prices I listed for seals were for two each, still a large difference between the resellers.

BigRed · Post by **BigRed** » 17 Jun 2011, 20:14

When I got in there I found the cam seals to be dry. There was significant oil collected under the spark plug cover. It appears it was flowing towards the front of the engine then into the timing cover. I'm doing the PCV tomorrow with FCP kit.

Post by **erikv11** » 17 Jun 2011, 22:27

erikv11 wrote:Front cam seals is a good call but first check under the spark plug cover for oil. If the PCV hose (or the oil cap itself) is leaking oil under there, it often drains out the front side of the engine and down behind the cam pulleys.

If you have a leak up there fix it (change the cap gasket, do a PCV job) and see if that takes care of it. If it doesn't ... front cam seals.

What you describe is exactly what I was talking about in this post^^.

Personally I would leave the front cam seals alone, they can last a very long time if the PCV is kept clean. Just hang onto the replacements in case you need to do them later (or send 'em back to fcp?) .