Today I got underneath the car to trace an oil leak. As any 3.8 SFI Turbo owner knows, they like to drip from time to time. It looked to me like it was leaking on the passenger side in between the oil pan and oil cooler. It seemed to be dripping down on the crossmember which made it hard to see anything. I ended up cleaning things up underneath and replacing the oil cooler o-ring as part of regular maintenance. It didn’t look bad when I took it out so I doubt that was it. It’s one of those deals where you hope something looks terrible when you take it out so you at least get a sense you nailed the problem. I didn’t get that.
I then went out and bought a dye kit and threw that in. I drove about 20 miles around town and then got under it to see what was up. I felt like I was in Predator with the green I saw. My turbo oil return was loose and leaking onto the radiator hose and also into the intercooler bracket. My valve cover gasket was leaking down the back of the engine as well. At least the O-ring was fine on the cooler but it probably always was. I also removed the inspection cover from the torque converter. Although there was a little oil in it, it was clean and not sprayed around which meant the rear main was probably fine. I think this oil is from the valve cover. I tightened up all I could so we shall see what happens now.
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