The leak appears to come from where the timing cover, block and head come together on the drivers side of the engine. It looks like it could be coming from the seam between the block and head. I would say its a small leak. After 50 miles of highway driving a tiny stream will have formed along the passenger side of the block, right behind where the distributor on a 240 would be.
I removed the top timing cover and pulled the back half of the timing cover as far away from the head as it would go and checked around the cam seal and saw no obvious leaking from there. I also checked the valve cover gasket and found no leaks. How likely is this leak to be coming from the block?

If it is coming from the block, what would be the best action to take?


The car has just past 250,000 miles. The car starts, idles and runs fine. There is no oil in the coolant , nor coolant in the oil that i can see. The temp guage is always dead center. Recent compression test gave me 180 across all cylinders.

Had a recent problem with coolant spewing out of the reservoir, but resolved by changing the cap and lowering the coolant level. There hasnt been a repeat of that. Also recently cleaned the pcv system, including removing and giving a thorough cleaning to the oil separator. I still get a little oil leaking from the(after market) oil filler cap, but just a slight bit.


Thanks


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If your going to do the cam seal do the intermediate and crank seals as well. I had the same style leak and it turned out to be the crank seal and I only found out this after I put it all back together and only had replaced the intermediate and cam seal. The oil likes to get on the belt and make the problem look like it is coming from somewhere else.
It could also be coolant at the thermostat mixed but not as likely.

Ever so slightly, collecting oil from the block, and looking like oil. It was a slow leak, with only one drop about to fall when I discovered it.
The hose clamp wasnt quite tight enough. Im happy I discovered it before I pulled the timing cover, etc.

Is there an oily mist on top of your Water pump??

It sounds like it is poosibly the Front Cam Seal. 250K miles is about the time my 230F engine neede that seal.
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Thanks.
No oily mist on the water pump.
I hope you're right. A leaking cam seal would be better than a leaking head gasket. No doubt. Im hoping for something like that.

Larue

Easiest way to find a leak. Clean the engine. then some cheap baby powder all over. It will show where its originating from.
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Thanks.\
The baby powder sounds like a great idea. I just washed the engine last week, so Im good to go.

Larue