440 oil leak front passenger side

[dave73]

So my 440 is leaking a little bit of oil and I can't find the source. It's pooling up on the front passenger side lip of the oil pan. (Pic below) I changed valve cover gaskets already and solved that leak, I thread sealed the fuel pump bolts and pushrod plug. Where else should I be looking, in stumped. Oil level is remaining pretty normal after drives so it's not a big leak but would like to figure it out. Leak doesn't occur during idle but if I drive it around the block it leaks. Possibly too much crankcase pressure?

[Chryco Psycho]

Could be crankcase pressure  do you have a decent PCV system set up ?
Often the corner of the block between the oil pan block & timing cover an leak but it is more likely on a small block than a big block with the one piece oil pan gasket .
Oli leaks on the passenger side are always more common as oil is thrown to that side by the crankshaft

[RUNCHARGER]

The valley pan gasket can leak in the corners too.

[1 Wild R/T]

Look at the fuel pump.... Brake clean throughly, short drive inspect.....

[benlavigne]

Replaced a valve cover gasket on the 383 last week, and there was still oil leaking... turns out the bolts holding the valve cover were a little bit too long and were hitting and not holding the cover tight. removed a little bit from each and it's now tight. Might be worth a try...

Ben

[Shane Kelley]

Replaced a valve cover gasket on the 383 last week, and there was still oil leaking... turns out the bolts holding the valve cover were a little bit too long and were hitting and not holding the cover tight. removed a little bit from each and it's now tight. Might be worth a try...

Ben

That's a easy thing to do on a big block. Those outer corner holes are pretty shallow on them. That would be something to really inspect because a person might be mistaken the bolt bottoming instead of being tight. The last one I did I installed the factory studs and nuts but the person who worked on it before had bolts that were to long and causing a leak.

[dave73]

When I changed my valve cover gaskets, I used arp studs instead of bolts. Seems to be holding a lot better but I'll check just to be sure. Seems like above my fuel pump is dry so don't think it's dripping from above. The fuel pump pushrod pipe plug is a little wet but think it's dripping to there, not the culprit itself. I thread sealed it, drove again and still happening. Kinda feels like it may be coming from somewhere around the timing chain cover area. My block is painted black so it's hard to see just about anything... 

[RUNCHARGER]

Ha, ha: That's why I hate black engines (also why some other people like them).

[dave73]

So I inspected a little further and found that my breather and pcv are contacting or really close to hitting the valve cover baffle. I'm guessing that is probably causing a restriction at the very least. I have this billet breather and pcv from summit, the stems look really long. Could that be causing such intense crankcase pressure that it is blowing out of anywhere it can find a pinhole?

[RUNCHARGER]

It is certainly possible.

[Chryco Psycho]

A properly functioning PCV is very important , even with a good system I buckled the intake valley pan up against the intake , imagine the pressure to invert that pan with the side locked down !!
My mistake was pushing it back down , the next pass it split it in 1/2 , should have just left it alone !!
I ended up running an evac system to the header collectors , I used a split sysem with a regular PCV Valve for street driving & low RPM & the evac for high RPM & Racing the worked opposite too so one would close if the other opened

[dave73]

So I tested my pcv and it seems to be functioning properly. When I removed the valve cover and checked clearance to the baffle, it seems normal in comparison to a few other pcv's/breathers/valve covers I had to try out.

I think my issue with the oil leak may be associated more to the valve covers and the gaskets. When removing the valve covers, I had oil on both sides of my gasket so definitely not sealing well at all. I noticed oil pooled on the valley pan and also dripping from the bottom of the trans, looks like it ran down the back of the engine. I noticed the lip of the valve cover was preventing it from sitting flat on the head. Actually, the lip does not allow the valve cover to "wrap" around the head. Also, after further inspection, the gasket doesn't fit within the lips of the valve cover. I'm using moroso rubber with steel core gaskets. Valve covers are some cheapo chrome ones. I have aluminum fabricated valve covers that have a flat surface, no lip, but when I tried to install them, they would not clear the distributor.

Have a few ideas:
1.removing the valve cover studs and running bolts on the passenger side, that may help get the aluminum covers with no lip on...
2. run double cork gaskets on the current valve covers with a lip
3. grind the lips on the current valve covers where the issues are to make them sit flat

[Chryco Psycho]

Makes sense , alum valve covers will not conform to the head as the head is just left cast & is far from flat  which is why Mopar used steel covers

[dave73]

I have aluminum stealth heads if that matters...

[RUNCHARGER]

I'm not a fan of double gasketting. I feel that two gaskets combined with overtorqueing fasteners just leads to warped parts. I would take a short flat edge to the valve cover sealing surfaces and see how far from flat they are. If they can be hammer and dolleyed flat again I would do that and grind them so they can fit flush.