What is this thing leaking oil?
 

Cam sensor? Probably has an oring.

And or a gasket?

o-ring

Cam sensor should be dripping below....this could be a long shot but could it just be sloppy use of your dipstick? It's in the path of drawing the stick out of the engine.

No chance ^ lol but thanks for the suggestion

Well, the first thing I would do is to clean the oil from the area then torque the bolt down ..... and see if the leak stops.

If it still leaks, I'd suggest you remove the part, clean it up and re-install, using some gasket stuff (like ATV).

That ought to fix er up ......:)


humfrz

I know RTV can fix many things, but being a mechanic. I absolutely HATE when a vehicle comes in and has rtv covering something that should have a gasket, or an o-ring on it.
I agree with what you said about the cleaning/and re-torqueing it, but if the o-ring/gasket is damaged, do it right the first time with the right part. Will save you a headache down the road.

wouldn't it be torqued to spec before they leave the factory?

Maybe it vibrated loose or after going through so many heat cycles the bolt is backing out slightly. I'll see how tight it is when i get home here in a minute. I definitely want to replace it with an oem oring or the right kind of gasket material, im not going to just slob on some random sealant from autozone :)

Oh, I agree with replacing a damaged O-ring or gasket.

However, it has been my experience, that sometimes, gaskets (except head gaskets) could use a little help ..... :).


humfrz

Hopefully so, however, sometimes bolts become un-torqued ..... :(

I remember, back in the day, I was baling hay with an old IH, PTO driven baler, and noticed the "sheer" pin was loose.

So, I put in a brand new "bolt" ...... a nice shiny one, with three dashes stamped on top and torqued it down good (tight. then another 1/4 turn with a 1/2"drive ratchet). That's 87 ft lbs, for those of you that don't have a calibrated wrist .... ;)

Fired that machine up and the first time the plunger/ram got stopped by a restriction in the shoot ....... all heck broke loose ...... guess what "gave" .... and why .... ??

First one to guess correctly ....... WINS!


humfrz

My guess is that it wasn't the grade 5 bolt...

Lol i dont know about that farm machinery but it makes me feel better to know theres a good ol' country boy chiming in on my thread!

There was an o-ring under there, it appears to be in good shape. Im guessing its just leaking because theres some extra pressure in the crankcase as a result of the motor being boosted. I do have an oil catch can at least.

For now i just cleaned everything up and put it back in place. I wonder if i'll be able to buy just the o-ring separately or if i'll have to buy that entire sensor

Does anybody know what this sensor is? i couldn't see how it would work. I need to get a factory service manual.

I did get to stick my finger in the hole and touch the cam, so that was kind of exciting