5sfe oil leak, Need advice Options

[dgbldr]

Have a fairly good size oil leak. About one drop per 15-20 seconds with engine idling. I saw oil coming down in the circled area (first picture) and dripping off. Apparently it dribbled on the axle "tulip" for some time and got flung everywhere. So I took the timing covers off and most of the pulleys. Notice crank seal area is dry.

In second picture notice no leak at cam pulley. In third picture, all pulleys are dry. Slightly oil-damp oil pump seal. In 4th picture, back of oil pump cover shows seal intact but hardened.

Questions: What is the most likely source? Could it be between oil pump body and engine block? Does it make sense to put it back together with new seals at this point and see what happens? Or does it make more sense to pull the oil pump? I'm not anxious to pull the pump, with the oil pan sitting on the jack currently.

Anybody see anything in these pictures that I don't? Thanks.

Edit: All belts are dry and clean.






This post has been edited by dgbldr: Apr 25, 2009 - 1:59 AM

[presure2]

looks like the oil pump seal itself.
the little one, that goes around the rotor.
youll need to replace the pump housing seal when you reinstall it anyway, so i would go ahead and do both the oil pump seal, and the housing seal as well, and hell, since its all torn apart, do the waterpump if needed.

in that last pic, the oil pump rotor looks like it has a signifigant amount of wear at the tips. is that just the pic? if not, i would replace the oil pump as well.

[dgbldr]

What bothers me is that I don't see a big enough leak around the oil pump shaft. I'm afraid there may be another leak elsewhere.

Does anybody have a picture of the back of the oil pump body? I'm trying to get an idea of what kind of gasket is between the oil pump body and the engine block. And how likely that might be to leak.

No, the oil pump lobes measure good, it's just the picture. And yes, I'm replacing the water pump.

[Ryouxrs]

X2 for oilpump body to block gasket, id start there