Ay Ya! Leaking Oil

[flat4]

So I've been driving my car hard at the track for the past few years, and over the past few racing sessions, it turns out that my car has been leaking oil onto the header on 3-4 side, and blowing some smoke.  The first report (from a bystander) was it was coming out the tailpipe, but this isn't the case as it's coming off the header.  I originally thought it was the valve covers/hose for the breather leaking, so I swapped them both out and put a set of modified stock covers on, new gaskets, and new hose.  At the completion of my burn out, I noticed some smoke blowing past my window, and down the track, I could see in my rear view that I was still blowing.  In the pits, the valve cover is leaking from the bottom edge again, and dripping on the the header.   It only happens at higher RPM (5000 or so and up).

Ideas and suggestions are invited.

[Chris]

stock oil cooler leaking?

[flat4]

No sir.  It's coming directly out of the bottom of the valve cover.  I'm thinking there might be too much crankcase pressure, but from what I've read, that causes oil to leak from the front pulley or fuel pump stand in most cases.

[James Buchan]

What are you running for a breather setup?

[flat4]

Bugpack generic setup.  Valve covers to breather, breather box drains into the oil filler neck.  There is no venting to atmosphere, so I don't know if this is the cause.  I suspect it is.

[Russ]

i welded washers to the inside of my valve covers.
Bruce had mentioned to do this,apparently at higher rpm's the gasket will get sucked in like a vacuum.
i don't know if this is the cause but mabey someone can clarify what i'm trying to say.
russ
ps this is for my project car motor so i have not actually run it to see if it helps

[flat4]

Thanks for the tip.  Where exactly did you weld the washers to?

[Trevor P]

You just need to weld a couple tabs to the inner lip of the valve cover to hold the gaskets in place. If you look at a T4 valve cover it already has these from factory. A pic would probably be more helpful then me trying to explain it, but I don't have one handy.

[flat4]

I think I understand.  This drives two more questions though.

1. Does the case still need to be vented to the outside?
2. What could cause this problem occured now?

[Chris]

got to stop reading posts so early in the morning, I keep missing stuff.

[Bruce]

Fred, check your breather box.  I think you will find that it is open to atmosphere so it breathes out of that.  A good idea is to add a hose connection from your breather system to your aircleaners.  That way extra crankcase pressure is sucked out.

I went through big gasket problems years ago.  Welding tabs on the inside helped a lot.  I did 2 at the bottom, one on each end, then the factory dimple in the center.  The dimpled VCs were originally installed on dual port engines.  If I were to do another set, I would weld 3 tabs at the bottom, 1 on each end, then 2 extras on the top.

A trick Gary Berg uses is to clean your VCs and glue the gaskets in with your favourite sealer (not RTV).  Clamp them onto a bare head and let the glue dry overnight.  Then transfer them to the engine.  But before you do this, take your automatic centerpunch and punch the crap out of the edge of the head where the gasket seats.  The raised burrs will grip the gasket.

This has completely stopped my engine sucking in a gasket.  My current engine has 50k miles in 5 years.  One of the gaskets has been there from the previous engine.

[Bullyboy]

We use loctite 515 as a gasket dressing on the valve cover side. Sticks the gasket on nice but not a pain to get off (stays flexible). learned that from our old german buddy.