SBC oil leak location?

To keep a project simple this summer I bought a GM 350/290 sbc long block crate motor. Fine, but now I have some sort of minor few drops oil leak after I use the car.
I slid underneath and see oil forming between the bottom of the timing cover and front edge of the oil pan. I bought this to make life simple and now I have to go through the aggravation of this. When I changed the valve covers they were glued on so tight I could barely rip them off.
Would I just logically presume this is coming from the bottom edge of the timing cover seal?

 

you could presume that, but you'd be better off carefully inspecting the engine to find out where it's coming from. could be that seal between the oil pan and timing cover, or it could be the front crank seal, intake seal at the block, valve covers, etc. Did you put vented valve covers on the engine? if not it could be blowing oil out the path of least resistance.

 

Not coming out the crank seal--I can see that. Have vented valve covers and not dripping out of valve cover gaskets. Checked all that first. I can clearly see oil forming between the timing cover and oil pan.

 

then it should be that seal. Is it one of the mexican engines? with dipstick holes on both sides?

 

Yeah--Mexican. But I have had three of these with zero problems.
The valve covers were glued on so tight I had to rip and twist them to get them loose.

 

I was just wondering, not sure if you can get the one piece oil pan gasket for those?

 

I had the same leak, very hard to solve. Here is what worked for me, 1st - vented oil breather cap is big, 2nd if you used your old h-balancer you should have put a repair sleeve on it, 3rd when you put the H Balancer on you need to put a bead of (black)RTV on the backside of the H Balancer to seal against the timing gear or oil will travel along the key way and out the center.. Make sure you don't get any on the timing cover seal.. good luck

 

I would try tightening up the oil pan first. Mine had a leak like that, I tightened the oil pan and it slowed it down. So I took a wooded dowel and small hammer and slightly contoured the pan so the seal would sit better.(OK I took a f.n hammer and beat it in with a block of wood, but I didn't bend it all up) Stopped the leak.

 

You said you had a breather, but do you have a working pcv valve?
If it is coming from the gasket you may want to try this.
Clean the leaking area with brake cleaner real good
Hook up a wet/dry vac to where your breather plugs in at and plug the pcv up.
Use a good rtv sealer on the leak. Let the vac*** pull it in the gap.

 

Genius, That is freakin genius. Why havent I ever heard of that before.

Ive had a leak in the same place on a 350. Never did get it.

 

Wow, that is pretty clear thinking and sounds like a great solution. I'll check things out on the weekend. If it works, I'm thinking Nobel Peace prize.

Yes, I have a working PCV valve. I generally do things right but I am prone to the hammer ideas. Maybe not in this case but this is a pretty annoying leak. I bought the crate thing so I wouldn't have any probs and here I am having probs.
On the ***umption it's the timing cover--- 55 years of building the same engine the same way with the same bolts and the same two hands and likely the same cork seal and the story ends with an oil leak?

 

It's better to use (a little) too much silicone than not enough! I would rather see my engine look like a Play-Doh machine than wipe oil off the floor every time I back out of the garage. The vacuum trick sounds like a damn good idea!

 

Not me! RTV all over the outside of the motor looks like garbage if you ask me

 

Are you sure you are using the correct front oil pan gasket? There are two different thicknesses available. I made this mistake ONCE.

 

Here is how I seal em up....
Clean the area with brake parts cleaner.
Use the shop vac trick.
Definetly silicone the back end and keyway on the balancer.
Use "ultra black" permatex silicone. ( it sets up hard, and matches the black end seal in color )
Smooth it with a wet finger while it is still wet.

Most important...Let it set up over night before you start the engine !

Dave

 

Bingo had the same thing, and ever changed pans found I had the later pan and was using the earlier front seal.
If it is, there is nothig you can do but change gaskets...

 

This is my leak test.. Clean with brake cleaner. Use a turkey baster to cover with baby powder. Now watch for the first spot to drip. The oil will be very dark across the powder. UGOTPK