Hi all,

Diagnosing a valve cover leak. Would like some input whether people think I'm dealing with a bad gasket, or a cover than needs replacing.

In the attached pics - ignore the round stain on the left - that's from an oil cap. The leak is concentrated around the top left part. That whole area has some oil seepage and it's hard to tell if it's from the gasket or not - but the plastic parts arrangement has oil on it which is concerning.

Any thoughts?




The plastic parts in the centre - the PCV valve? - have oil on them.



Underneath the ignition coil wiring - on the plastic shelf of sorts - is also some oil (but ignition coils themselves and spark plugs are clean)

 

it is hard to tell, but lets start fresh. clean the area with throttle cleaner and dry it off. see of oil accumulate in the questioned areas.
are you seeing loss of oil, any check engine lights? or your just house keeping the engine bay?

 

I see a drip of oil on the garage floor every few days, and the oil level does decrease over weeks; also, once or twice I had a puff of white smoke out of the exhaust, though that was about two months ago and I've not seen it since, so not 100% sure what's up there.

The whole thing started when I went to change oil some time back (a month and a half or so) and when I went under the car to loosen the oil gasket, I saw this:



Looking at the car from the front, bumper is towards top of the picture


I figured something's got to be off then, and a mechanic friend who didn't see the car yet said it's either the valve cover or the gasket, but since we haven't had time to get together and look at the car, I'm doing my own research as best I can.

 

it seems right under the oil filter housing. is the cap tight? do you see leaks after the oil filter housing but not from the head cover? if you cannot tell, as redundant this may sound, clean it and dry the area. start the car for a little bit and see where the oil is coming out.
also, see the oil line feeding the turbo, it is another trouble area for the N14 engines.

 

I'm going to have to take a look at that, that's a good question. I guess I mentally made the connection that if there's oil below, and oil on the valve cover, then it's necessarily that - but you're right that I have no empirical evidence to back this up.

I just climbed under the car, and it's pretty wet down there, certainly more than on the valve cover. I don't know how to trace the leak between the valve cover and the oil filter, though - I can't really see into the engine. Hmm.

[edit] turbo is dry, fortunately. I looked that up and it seems that that's a nightmare to fix, but fortunately I have no issues there.

 

to trace oil coming out of the head cover, just clean around it and make it dry. then see if there is any oil staining.
however, this is more in line with the turbo oil feed line. also looking that that feed, it looks pretty rusted too.
the fact the the left side of the transmission is wet, make me believe it is the oil filter housing. and the fact that the area above the exhaust is wet, also points to the oil feed line and/or the housing.

 

Ok. Appreciate the feedback. How can I tell the turbo line from the oil filter housing? I thought the turbo line was up on top in the turbo (as in this thread).

 

the oil feed to the turbo also goes down to the engine block about three inches away from the oil filter housing.



this is when i was doing some work on my engine. you can see what is behind the turbo heat shield.

 

Wow. Now I have to figure out how to see in there without disassembling the whole front :D

I wonder if I can remove some of the shielding / etc to look around there, hmm. Or do I need a lift?

 

you can actually remove the shielding and even the exhaust if you want and get behind the this mess. The trick is, you need small hand...lol..i was able to do that on another car when i had to replace the catalytic. no need for a lift, but you have to jack that car up to unbolt the bottom.
but before all that, clean up the oil pan too and see if it is leaking! and again, make sure the the oil filter cap is tight!

 

Ok, some updates.

- unscrewed the coolant reservoir and with a flashlight and a (small hand) started fishing around there for oil. Found some residue but nothing fresh best as I can tell. incidentally,
coolant level OK.
- felt around the oil filter cap. dry.
- cleaned up valve cover to see if reappears.
- to better fish around, took off the air intake to the turbo and hey. there's drops of oil in it. I'm a noob, but that can't be right? would that explain the (very) occasional puffs of smoke and also suggest PCV valve failure or something of the sort?

picture:

 

From the Minis I had, I did see some oil in the turbo inlet. Any trace at the base of the oil filter housing?

 

Doh! Okay, so it's not that. None at all around the oil filter housing, dry as a California .... year.

So I guess I have to get to the oil feed line somehow to see if there's something going on there. Well, also after I go for a drive, see how the valve cover reacts - I cleaned it pretty well so any new oil will be visible (btw, that throttle cleaner stuff is magic!)

 

I buy them in boxes...lol btw, make sure your oil level is good and fresh.

 

I slacked off checking oil for a while so had to top up 1.5qts. Was barely at the bottom of the stick. Now it's okay ... I need to change oil actually but don't want to do it until it's sorted.

 

You will get a trace amount of oil in the turbo inlet.

On the valve cover, i bet there is a hairline crack on the backside and its leaking. Usually its in the middle. 11127646555

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...lve-cover.html





On the underside i bets its the gaskets going to the oil filter housing. Which then go ahead and do the turbo lines. You are there and they will leak down the road.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...placement.html









Turbo oil lines kit 11657534454

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...leaking-5.html





Then doing the oil change and flush the coolant to get any cross over from the oil filter housing gasket.

https://www.ecstuning.com/News/MINI_...8_R59_R60_R61/

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AND

MINI coolant 82140031133 or the Blue MINI coolant aftermarket. Mix 50/50 with distilled water.

https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...h/82140031133/

 

jbourne-
If you replace the turbo oil supply line, consider replacing the oil filter housing seals and the oil cooler seals at the same time while you're in there. Also, consider putting the front end into service position and removing the turbo....more work, but it makes everything so much more accessible....and might actually be faster. When I did mine, I also replaced my auxiliary water pump at the same time as a precaution.

 

Thanks. We spent some time with the car on the lift and, with a decently high degree of confidence, we've decided it's NOT the valve cover, as there's no fresh oil anywhere above the oil filter housing. Our best effort suggests the oil filter housing gasket is leaking (#5 in image below), and also the #6 gasket (is this the oil cooler set?)

Per ECS's advice above, maybe I'll pick up an oil pipe, though that part number seems to suggest just the pipe itself, no other gaskets (I need to do the job this weekend so shipping internationally is unfortunately not an option).

Should I replace anything else while I'm at it?

 

Take a look at this -

http://www.detroittuned.com/dt-turbo...ine-super-kit/

I decided to go with the Detroit Tuned version because the connections are impervious to the heat, unlike the OEM line. Also, this kit has much of what you'll need.

Other than the oil cooler and oil filter housing seals, consider doing the auxiliary water pump at the same time. Something that you might consider while you're in there would be the muffler delete....not a maintenance thing, but more of a small performance gain....and more sporty sound. You can do it any time, but it's easier while you're in there. If you put it in service position, you might want to consider doing your serpentine belt....and maybe your tensioner. They're a little bit easier to get to. Be sure to change your oil at the same time....also,m not a bad idea to change your coolant, but not required.

 

I would do it all at once while you are in there, the whole kit is linked below above also and here:

11657534454KT

https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/11657534454/