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has anybody ever used a stop leak oil additive additive as a temparary fix to get through the cruise season
How bad the leak? Where is it located?
I tried using it once on a 4 cyl Pinto which had a rear oil seal leak. Didn’t seem to make much diference.
I have tried many, none worked for shhhh it …. Dan P.S. just add oil and repair as soon as you can.So far the best Ive found is a piece of cardboard under the car till next winter. Planning a rebuild then, mines high crank case pressure blowing out the ft cam seal.
Hard to tell where leak is.This is how i see it.Start it up drip drip drip.Back it out of garage,turn it off drip drip drip .Restart take it for a ten mile ride.No drip when i stop, running or not running.Maybe oil temp related
Don’t know what prompted you to say “maybe oil temp related”. But let’s assume that it is. All oils thin somewhat when they are hot. Could it be that when cold, the oil is so thick that it is overpressurizing one or more of the oil sealing o-rings on the oil cooler? Or anyplace else where the oil pressure it high. I expect that it may be the cooler seals since they are in the air stream and therefore the oil that leaks out gets flung high and low getting on everything. What oil are you running??
As Zero Mostel said, “a funny thing happened to me on the way to the forum” : Well, after my last engine rebuild, I decided to go with 10W30 oil. I am from a school that preached that if your oil pressure was low, put a higher viscosity oil in. Because it doesn’t flow as readily, it will have more difficulty getting through the restricted passages and therefore, the pressure will increase. But the function of oil is to lubricate, not just to give a reading that makes the driver comfortable. So, I decided to go with a lighter oil. Here is the funny thing: my engine temperature decreased by about 35 degrees. Instantly. Now I start to wonder why. Well our oil pressure (talking VW here) relief is supposed to bypass oil around the cooler and protect it (the oil cooler) from blowing out due to overpressure. The theory here is that the oil cooler is the restriction in the flow and the bypass is a bigger line with less restriction. With a heavy (I alternated between 20W50 and 40 weight single viscosity) oil, the pressure was so high that my cooler never was put “on line” because the oil pressure was so high. Going to a lower 10W30 oil reduced the pressure, increased the flow through the cooler and across the bearings, and caused the engine to run cooler……and a few small leaks disappeared. Try it, you might like it. My engine has not exceeded 190 (oil temp, not head temp) on the hottest days here in NC. I periodically verify the accuracy of my oil temp gauge with an IR thermometer (a comforting little gadget that I picked up at Harbor Freight for about $30.)Royal you certainly are a interesting in what you are saying i wonder if vw agrees. I am dripping Shawn Penn the green oil 20w 50
Getting 30-35 lbs at the switch at speed (only over 40 at startup and
for a few minutes) with Valvoline 20-50 zzdp yadda blah blah. Leaks
about the same as with 10-40, which leaks about the same as 5-30 and
5-30 with a pint of Marvel Mystery in it.My solution?
In my defense: that cardboard is two seasons old.
edsnova2012-09-06 11:43:00
Oil strainer/drain plug crush gaskets possibly? I’d start there and then move to the oil pressure relief valves crush gaskets. After that comes thevalve cover gaskets (use the good cork ones). If she’s still leaking after that then its the pushrod tube seals, oil cooler seals, oil pump paper gasket, flywheel seal, or the dreaded case crack. Hopefully its the simplest one…the oil strainer area.
Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackI had this problem with my engine. Met a VW mechanic at a local cruise-in a couple of months ago. He works only on Air cooled engines. He dropped the engine and replaced all of the seals. Oil was leaking mostly from the oil cooler, flywheel, and push rods. The engine is completely dry and no longer leaking oil.
Finding this mechanic was a Godsend. Not only is he thorough but very reasonable. as for type of oil, he uses Penzoil 20Ww50.
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