oil leak from head/ gasket intersection question..

[87black325is]

'87 325is

I am losing about 1/4 a quart of oil about every 200 miles or so. I wiped everything down and checked after driving some and noticed some oil leaking from the exhaust side of the engine at the head/ block interestion, predominately near the back of the engine, but seems to be along that whole side. There might be some leaking on the other side too, but hard to see.

My question is what coolant or oil additive product is best and safe to use to try and stop this leak? Any products to really stay away from that might harm the water pump or coolant system in general? I figured first using Bar Leak's Alumnimum Stop Leak or whatever it is called, so I do not have to empty the coolant. If that does not work, I was going to use one of the specific head gasket products which requires removing the coolant. If that did not work I would torque the head bolts, get new bolts, etc, etc.

I haven't seen any smoke or noticed any adverse affects of the oil leak

Thanks!!

[jlevie]

A stop leak won't do any good for an oil leak at the head gasket. Only pulling the head and replacing the gasket will work.

As an FYI, even for a coolant leak a stop leak product is a bad idea. It may temporarily seal the leak, but the fix won't last and the stop leak will seriously gunk up the entire cooling system.

[StereoInstaller1]

OK, so if you have a massive leak like that I would bet it is NOT a weak gasket...a quart per 200 miles? We are talking "Rolling Valdez" here, not a sloppy gasket.

First thing to check is the oil pressure sending unit. Jack your car up and look for a little black doo-dad down by the oil filter.

Remember, the sneaky fucker doesn't leak unless the car is running...at higher RPM.

So, jack it up, fire it up and rev it too, while looking under your car.

Part is about $12 at the dealer. Easy (but messy) to change.

Good luck!
Luke

[87black325is]

Thanks, but..

I did recently replace the oil pressure sensor, the screw plug like thing just below the oil filter housing with the electrical connection, and haven't noticed any oil leaking that would indicate this.

I could have some leaks from other places, but I really noticed some seepage from that block/ cylinder head area. I checked the valve cover to see if I had seepage at the gasket, but there was none. I thought it might have been the oil pan gasket since I noticed early on, before I wiped things down, that some drops of oil accumulated on some of the oil pan bolts. After wiping things down and tightening the oil pan bolts a bit, I really think it was just oil coming down from that block/ cylinder interesection.

Also, it is 1/4 of a quart of oil per about 200 miles, not a quart as you had written, but yes still a really good leak.

[HST]

Sounds like Head gasket to me. You might be lucky and it is coming from the oil filter housing. There are also two "plugs" on the back of the head that could be bad. Also any stop leak is a stupid fix.

[SpecM]

-Do NOT use any oil or coolant additives. Bad idea.

-What weight oil do you use? 20w-50 works the best