I am pretty sure I have the crank shaft seal leaking oil. It tried to blame it on my recently installed Crooked Willow oil cooler system by spraying oil on the fittings among other places. I placed a barrier just inboard of where the oil cooler fitting goes into the engine and the oil spray is only on the crank shaft side and it only appears in a vertical line.

The problem appeared either at the end of an open tracking weekend or on the drive home. Never saw any oil drop off the car at the track but there was lots in my garage. Also I just switched to Redline 20W50 at Tri Points advice and was seeing higher oil pressures ever since.

Does anybody have any opinions on what else it might be and what it might cost me to have a new seal put in the engine?

 

new selas in engine means a rebuild... a base rebuild is usually about 2 grand...unless your housing are bad its more then that...u can pick up a mazda reman for about 2k as well

 

Well it looks like it is the front crank shaft seal. I have been on the phone with Tri Point and he says it is very unusual to have that leak. He suggested checking the front cover where it attaches to the engine.

I pulled the air box, intercooler, and battery out and ran it till hot and I don't see how it can be coming from anywhere but the front seal. The trick it was playing is that it was slinging oil right on to the engine outlet fitting on my Crooked Willow oil cooler kit. You'd think the puddle of oil is where the problem is. Nope!

Judging by the amount of dirty oily area, there has been oil coming out for some time. The thing is untill this, it has never dropped any oil on the garage floor.

The agravating part is that the only oil I am really seeing is being flung from the pulley. No drips or flows to anywhere. Also there is nothing at idle. Only when the RPM and oil pressure is up. Of course after a short while there is significant oil on averything below the pulley area.

On the not so bad side, it will only cost about $300-$350 to replace that seal if that is indeed what it is. That Miata track car is looking more and more tempting. The whole engine cost about that much

 

have you checked the lower primary turbo oil line? if it is overtightened at the middle joint part it could crack and leak, but there would be oil run on the engine.