Thread: Leaking oil - is it the pan or seal?

I've been under the car running and off - I see no leaks in either condition.

The side of the block above the pan gasket on the firewall side is wet - but I don't know if this is just old dirt or new leakage. I can't see any leaks below the lip of the valve cover (where I can look). I can see toward the corners and it looks "clean". I can't see in the middle due to a heater hose assembly being in the way.

There are sensors screwed into the sides of the block right above the oil pan - I presume these are knock sensors, but I have no idea. This sensor had oil covering it (the wire plug end had a drop or so on it). I've been presuming that the oil has been migrating up (like wicking or just splashing more or less), but it seems to be a lot to migrate up.

My car has had the recall fix - it leaked before and after this. Speaking of which - does this recall affect the front, rear or both valve covers?

One last thing: I keep my GTP in the driveway. It's a very sloped driveway (the steepest driveway I've ever seen). I've tried to mimic this condition when checking for leaks - I think it may be contributing the the condition.

I'm going to tighten the back valve cover (I can tell for sure the front one is fine) to see if I can reproduce a leak.

My car got the recall fix and the front gasket and not the rear was replaced at the dealer. In addition, each of the VC bolts and corners of the replacement and different VC gasket was soaked in RTV.

The back gasket was original and orange. The sealing face was flattened and wasn't doing squat. The front gasket was new and black. It was a lot taller than the back one and also the same as the new Fel Pro (except it was black and the Fel Pro was orange like tha back one).

When I replaced the front VC gasket I didn't use any RTV and it's not leaking at all.

Once you take it apart and see how the sealing is accomplished, you can see that the grommets are what provide the spring sealing force and not the valve cover bolts (the steel collars prevent you from applying sealing force to the gasket with the valve cover bolts - the sealing force is ONLY applied by the elastic spring-like properties of the grommets).

Personally, I think they should be called something other than grommets as grommets imply little more than anti-chafing whereas these are integral to the functionality of the seal.