I've got an oil leak coming from the right rear oil pan bolt. It starts dripping as you see in the picture after the car runs for about 5 minutes I pulled the inspection cover and I don't see any oil on the back of the fly wheel. Do you think it's the pan gasket or rear main seal? I'm leaning towards pan gasket because the flywheel is clean. The engine has less than 1000 miles on it. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
1. you have overtightened the bolt, note the gasket squishing out. 2. wrong bolt, the factory bolt has a flange that coves the hole 3. 1+2= oil leak from around the bolt hole. 4. only leaks when running 5. Did you mix your own color paint? 5. It appears there is some repair work on the pan that may have warped the pan preventing it from sealing against the gasket and rear pan seal. what is the white peaking out from under the ugly orange?
I wanted to post how I resolved this problem. The bolt is only tightened to 12 foot pounds. The gasket appears around all of the edges of the oil pan. This is an aftermarket 7 quart pan from an American manufacturer and uses the cap screw at the end bolt holes due to limited clearance. There are four of them used. I found an article written by former hot rod editor Jeff Smith on how to repair this problem without removing the oil pan using a combination of brake cleaner to clean the area and black RTV sealant. After driving the car for over 50 miles yesterday and driving it again this morning after the repair there were no leaks. There seems to be a lot of concern over the color of the engine. I assure you it is painted the standard Chevrolet orange. In order to assist in the diagnosis I used digital photo editing software to provide more contrast and better show the oil dripping off the bolt. The gray or white is digital distortion that appears from editing a low resolution file. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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