Hey all I have never seen this kinda problem before but I have a 455 that seems to slowly build up a small pool of oil between the #4 intake runner and the raised part for the choke. I have no idea where it could be coming from as the hose for the PCV valve checks out with no leaks and my valve cover gaskets appear fine! Has anyone ever experienced this odd behavior before?
Yeah definitely isn't, it's black in color like the oil in the engine currently is and when I rub some between my finger and thumb it feels viscous like it as well.
I've seen people report that these pools of oil are caused by seepage around intake bolt heads. Whether or not this is true is yet to be found. Just a thought. There really isn't anywhere else the oil could be coming from, though.
Remove the bolt. Clean it & the hole with Brakleen. Blow out the hole & bolt with air. Apply RTV silicone to the threads on the bolt. Re-install & torque. Should solve the problem.
It's worth a try since I am not sure exactly where the bolt passage passes through. I'll give it a shot and report back the results
The bigger question is "what pressure is pushing the oil past the intake bolt threads". Might want to verify that the PCV system is working, including the filter on the inlet side. If the PCV is working properly, the engine may have excessive blow-by, or an incorrect PCV valve for the engine combo. "I" would not use RTV silicone as a thread sealer in this case. I'd use pipe thread sealer, specifically Loctite 592. I don't like the way RTV silicone shreds on disassembly.
The oil pooling problem seems to show up after driving it awhile and it's been so rainy miserable I haven't had a chance to try the bolt fix yet. I did try the PCV check though since I can do that idling under the carport. Thankfully I don't seem to have excess pressure at idle in the crankcase and some quick speed ups and holds of the throttle showed no excessive pressure either. I do however have very little vacuum (between 1 and 0) and feel this maybe the mileage on the engine showing its self at the gaskets and seals and she is letting me know the rebuild is still comin lol. It's gonna be nasty weather next couple days but I should be able to get the bolt cleaned and some sealer done then drive it a bit when it clears and see what happens
oh sorry I should have specified what test I was doing for the PCV test. I was doing the method of blocking off the breather hose that goes to the air cleaner then hooking the vacuum/pressure gauge to the oil dipstick tube at an idle with engine fully warmed up. Your supposed to see a couple inches vacuum at idle but my engine is showing zero but the engine does have a bit of time and miles on it and I also suspect a leaking front seal too so I'm not surprised at the results. Since my problem seems to manifest itself after driving awhile when it gets a little nicer maybe before doing that bolt I'll try hooking the hose back to the air cleaner and keep the gauge on a long hose to the oil dipstick tube and see what I got for pressure/vacuum. If I don't see anything crazy I would be inclined to believe the bolt really is wicking the oil up and then try something on the threads.
Could the oil be dripping down from the air cleaner where the PCV vent hose connects to the air cleaner?
You know that was the first thing I thought! I popped the lid off that first day I noticed it and saw only one hole in the bottom of the air cleaner and it was on the driver side with no oil buildup in there either. So much for the easy fix! lol
As you can see I still have the oil pooling up near choke on the manifold and this was after I tightened the valve cover bolts and this was after I cleaned the area and snugged up the valve cover bolts a little more. So I went ahead and got the suspected bolt out and it was very interesting, when it was halfway out I heard a sludgy sucking sound and knew that wasn't normal. I was rewarded when I got the bolt out with seeing it coated in oil and although I could not get a good picture of the bolt hole there was oil pooled up in the bottom. I will clean the bolt with Acetone and wick/sponge out all the oil from the hole with some paper towel wrapped around a much narrower bolt. Then I'm going to use some Gaskacinch on the threads, reinstall it and see in a day or two if it changes anything. On a side note I could see down in the hole and could make out the intake gasket and didn't see oil/sludge/grime on the side facing up to me and wonder if the intake gasket could be leaking from the lower side. I now can not think of anywhere else the oil could have come from and just like the PCV test this might be a sign of the impending rebuild (unless anyone else with more experience would like to chime in if this is normal!).
If ur using not a metal vallypan intake gasget, retorque all the intake bolts. Simple looseness of the bolts can lead to tbat oil pudling
My engine builder uses pipe tread sealer on the intake manifold bolts..Its a chev 350 but still they leak oil out the same bolts... Mine don't.. He also used the pipe dope on other bolts also, I don't recall every bolt he used it on. I know you need to use it on some kind of dodge motor exhaust manifold bolts. One or two go strait into the coolant passage.
Well looks like removing the bolt, cleaning it and adding some gasket compoud fixed the leak. I dont have oil pooling up in that spot anymore after several hot/running cooldown/sitting cycles driving it yesterday and today. Still feel its a bandaid for a bigger problem but gives some I feel till I get more money saved and figure what direction I wanna go with the engine.
