2003 5.4 oil leak passenger side?

[kep5niner]

2003 EB 5.4 2v. Trying to hunt down an oil leak. Recently installed new intake manifold addressing other issues, and that was a success. Just spent 3 days meticulously installing new valve cover gaskets - both sides. Sad to say, that did not fix the oil leak. The starter has oil accumulation on it, and after a 10-15 drive, I have oil dripping off the passenger side cat and drips off of the front sway bar. Head gaskets are the only other thing I can think of, but when I had everything apart for the valve cover gaskets, the heads and gasket areas looked sound.

Any ideas where oil could be coming from? I'm not loosing coolant, and I see no evidence of oil / coolant cross-contamination. I'm at a loss now, any input would be appreciated! Thanks fellas.

 

[Hamfisted]

If its not the valve cover gasket. There is a small oil passage plug that screws into the back side of the heads, where the chain tensioners would be on the front end. The heads are interchangeable and drilled and machined on both ends for chain tensioner mounting. That tiny allen screw plug blocks off the oil passage that would feed the chain tensioner if it was mounted there. If it's loose, oil under pressure can seep past it. My money is still on the valve cover gasket or grommet on the valve cover bolts though. Sounds like you're getting more than an occasional drip though. Can you get a bright flashlight and see anything up there from underneath ?









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[kep5niner]

I did just finish with a thorough pressure washing of the underside with degreaser, and even got it up on ramps at the pressure washer. One of my friends gave me a dye kit, so I threw a vile of that into the oil. Drove it home - about 10 minutes, and see no signs of fresh oil, and picked up no dye. So I’ll let her sit overnight, take another look in the morning for any seepage. Then drive around for 20 minutes until something comes out.

Based upon the fact now the leak could be “intermittent” I would agree that it could be related to pressure. Never would have thought to look for that little Allen screw. I’ll get in there otherwise to further inspect the back side of the passenger side valve cover just to be sure if it’s the gasket or not. As always, thanks for the input Hamfisted!

 

[kep5niner]

After careful inspection, the valve covers gaskets are confirmed good to go. The leak(s) are coming from the head gaskets. Not too excited about that - it would have been nice to pull the engine right out of the gates to do the plugs and COPs, intake manifold, valve cover gaskets, etc. I’m not entertaining doing head jobs with the engine in the truck.

So if I’m pulling the engine to take care of the heads, maybe thinking of a re-man’d engine. Why go through all that work just to have the block take a dump on me, or pistons let loose?

All of this really wasn’t in the plan for a $2k project truck. For now, for this first time ever, I’ve rolled the dice on a bottle of snake-oil (stop leak) to see if it can at least arrest the leaky heads.

If looking for a re-man’d 5.4 2v, any recommendations for a source? Of course, if pulling the engine, then might as well address the radiator support, etc. etc. etc…Won’t take long to add up. Of course ROI was never part of the equation, but I would have a solid truck in the end.

 

[kep5niner]

So I’ve decided to install a new engine. I’ll start another thread on that process.

 

[Hamfisted]

How many miles are on the current motor ? It's only about another hour to pull the entire motor, as to pull just the heads anyway. Those harness bracket bolts on the back of the passenger-side head are the biggest pain of the whole operation.... LOL.


Precision Engine Performance Crate Motors



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[kep5niner]

I’m familiar with the harness bracket (see pic). The original engine has 260k on the clock. Last thing I would want to do is pull the engine for the head jobs, just to have the engine crap out shortly thereafter.

 

[Hamfisted]

Heck might as well pull the motor and tranny out together and replace both then.







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