I took my car for its maiden voyage last night, this thing hauls *** for 101hp, smoked like an S.O.B becaue of all the **** on top ove the engine. anyway, parked it for about ten min. or so and when I came out it had a good 5"-6" diameter puddle under the car. while I was under it putting the new clutch in the pan gasket seemed a little soggy all the way around.

What I want to know is: is it common for the pan to leak or is there something else, something more serious in the way of an oil leak??

Thanks,
Eric

 

Pans will leak, I check and tighten each oil change.

 

My 1979 RX7 seems to have a leak at the base of the oil filter mount. Not the gasket on the filter but the O rings where the filter mount bolts to the rear housing. you might check to see if the leak is from there since the oil trickes down and drips off the pan even though the pan is not the source of the leak.

 

The oil leak from the O rings at the base of the oil fiter mount was cured by new O rings. There is also a seepage coming from the joint between the rear rotor housing and the bellhousing. Looking at the FSM it appears that there is annother O ring there. It looks like a major task to get to this O ring. Am I correct or is there an easy way to get to this O ring.
Dennis L. Cote

 

If yours is the '85 mentioned in your profile, and if it still has the stock 12A oil cooler set-up there are several places to look for the source of the leak:

1. Oil pan gasket. (aged gasket or improperly torqued bolts).
2. Oil pan plug. (loose or cross-threaded).
3. Base of "beehive" oil cooler. (Bad seals).
4. Each end of metal oil tube leading from the oil cooler to the front left bottom corner of the engine's front cover. (loose fittings or bad crush washers).
5. Oil metering pump. (located on lower right front of engine's front cover. Bad seals and/ or gasket).
6. Oil galley seals between the housings, just above the spark plugs. This particular leak happens only when the engine is running and requires an engine teardown to rectify. (age and heat-hardened seals).
7. Front cover gasket. (aged gasket or improperly torqued bolts).

Best way to locate this leak is to jack the car up with engine running and observe where leak is coming from. It may not become obvious until the engine reaches operating temps. If still unable to locate source, degrease the engine bay and try again. I've seen engine bays that were so caked with grime that the dirt would absorb minor leaks and mask their origins.

 

My 85 used to leak like a bitch and this leak made the oil pan look like the culprit but it was the oil cooler "O" rings. That was ashitty job replacing them, but no leaks anymore!

- Jeff L.