Miata Mailing List: May 1998, Message #132

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> Peter Brusa[SMTP:repete@hotmail.com] wrote:
>
> I don't know if this may be a pontentail problem, but when I had my oil
> changed at R-Speed last week, we discovered oil residue over the bottom
> of the tranny..almost in the area of a seal that attaches the tranny to
> the clutch area.  The is no oil leaking from the motor (main head
> gasket).  Any ideas?  Is this common?
>
> -Peter Brusa
> 1991 Classic Red
>
Peter,

I don't know if it's common, but I found the exact same thing last month
when Seth G. did my clutch R&R. We don't think the head or valve cover
gaskets or the rear main seal were leaking, but we couldn't positively
identify the culprit. What we decided to do was to wash the engine
compartment down and wait a month to see if we could find the source. I will
be back under the car this weekend to scope things out. I'll let you know
what I find. If you find the source first, please let me know what it was.

Thanks and good luck.

Tom Perry

-----------------

Guys

I talked to Ken at RAS enigeering about this some time ago..........

I for a long time I thought my leak was a rear main seal issue.......until
I replaced the rear main and it still leaked.
There's a funny seal at the back of the engine right above the oil pan.

The mazda guys in Livermore told me about this too.

Somehow, some bolts go through the rear of the engine into an oil rich
area. The bolts don't seal up the space so mazda used this high-temp gasket
sealer as a fix for it. On older cars, this'll spring  a leak. Not a big
one, but enough to coat the underside of the car a good one. I find mine
leaks about a 1/4 quart between oil changes. No biggie for now as I'm prety
much going to yank the motor out this summer anyway.




Percy M. Chow
design guy

Team John 3:16

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