Is my headgasket leaking?

[irocz0r]

Hey guys, so my car definitely leaks a fair bit of oil, but it's never been serious enough that the car has been low on oil. Now I'm just trying to find out where it's leaking from.

The previous owner of this car changed the valve cover gasket 10,000 miles ago, and the head gasket 30,000 miles ago. Plus the car runs great. I had always kind of assumed the oil leak might have been the oil pan gasket.

Today I started thinking about it critically and took a deep look into the engine bay. To my untrained eyes, the biggest oil leak HAS to be from the head gasket. I don't see any other way this quantity of oil could get in that area.

But I wanted to ask for an expert opinion.... should I make plans to change the headgasket... or what could be the culprit for this nasty oil pool

By the way, what is the vertical cylindrical part covered in green grease?

[zaq123]

...obvious bitch tube leak....could be a little bit of head gasket, front main seal, intermediate shaft seal, front engine cover, cam seal, rocker shaft seals...
My engine looked just like yours after 140k miles and 27 years of life.

Looks like some coolant there as well? what's with that green slime?

[e30davie]

New o-rings for that tube thing. Clean it good before removing to avoid getting too much crap in the sump.

[TobyB]

I vote throttle body heater leaking onto bitch tube which has missing/messed up o-rings.

The bitch tube is the oil drain from the head to the crankcase, since there are no
cylinder wall drain passages in an m20.

t

[digger]

you probably need new o-rings for the top/bottom of the bitch tube (crank vent tube) mate.

or perhaps the intake manifold gasket associated with the crank vent is a bit iffy.

some valve covers give chronic leaks to

[irocz0r]

So I've been reading a bit about this crank vent tube. It seems like a project I can tackle, you just have to take off the intake manifold.

I'm having trouble finding the parts I need. Can someone help me find a link to a replacement hose with o-rings and washers, or at least the o-rings?

I might also use RTV around the bottom- I've read some people do this to ensure it doesn't leak again. Just need to find where to get the parts.

[digger]

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=1112-EUR---E30-BMW-325i&diagId=11_0117

p/n's 9,10, 12

from memory you dont actually need 2 washers despite realoem saying so. i usually order some extra spare o-rings in case. ive torn one during install when i didnt lube it. they are pretty cheap

[jeffnhiscars]

the bottom o ring doesnt do a whole lot to keep oil in but it does keep crud out and prevents air leaks.

[Das Delfin]

the reason two washers are spec'd is they go on either side of the spring (but only the bottom is really necessary) The top of the tube has only an o-ring held on by a rib shaped into the tube. If you put a washer and o-ring here you'll have a massive vacuum leak at the intake manifold. Ask me how I know :P

[Das Delfin]

but to answer your question, try cleaning the motor and check back on it in a few days to find the source of the leak