Rather nasty oil leak

[10/10ths]

Last week at an autocross I noticed my 89 325i has started leaking a decent amount of oil. I got the car up on stands yesterday and found the leak is coming down right were the transmission and engine meet. Seems to only leak when running and for some time after shutoff. I took off the cover (covers the flywheel and the rear of the oil pan gasket) cleaned it all up and found the rear 4-5 pan gasket bolts to be barely more than finger tight. I snugged them up a bit and ran the car.

The leak is still there, appears after a minute or two. It's very difficult to tell if the leak stems from up above (rear main seal or ??) or at the pan gasket. When running, it will come down at a steady drip.

Any insight or experiance with this would help. Track day in less than two weeks so I gotta get going on this. If it is the rear main seal, well that would suck, but it would give me an excuse to upgrade the clutch/flywheel. Because of the location it's really tough to tell if it is maybe the pan gasket, it would be at the top side of the gasket if that makes sense. Any other possible sources?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Justin

[Kershaw]

take purple power and dose the bottom of your car. let it sit for a few minute, randomly spraying more on.

take a hose and wash it off.

then look under your car.

[Cabriolet]

every e30 ive worked on where the pan gasket was not fresh the bolts were only hand tight. the gasket shrinks over time and thats what causes the leaks.

doing the rear main seal is a PITA.

but the bigger issue is make sure its not the back of the head gasket leaking.

but the cause of most of these leaks is the oil pan gasket.

[jlevie]

A leak there that only occurs when the engine is running is usually from the rear main seal. Especially if the leak occurs while the engine is idling.