Oil Pooling and Sitting In The First Two Branches Of The Intake Manifold

Is there anything towards the front of the intake, on the driver's side?

 

Most likely a head gasket leak (if you mean that engine oil is coming up at the head gasket joint and pooling up on top of the engine block) -- pressurized oil passes thru the head gaskets to get to the cams. Had the same problem myself on the other bank (made the decision for me to do the whole major service then). Moorespeed did the work to replace the head gasket (did both sides as the other showed a little evidence of coolant weeping), and had a heck of a time getting the cyl. heads off the head studs -- had to make special tooling -- what a surprise . I thought David had sent me some pictures at the time of the tooling set-up -- I'll see if I can find them later.

 

Oil also leaks out from the connecting rod bolt access plates. That would mean more under the starter.

 

Clean it up to perfection. Last step use brakeclean sprayed on a rag (not on a painted surface).

Watch it closely. You’ll see its source.

 

Oil is supplied to the head at a passage at the extreme upper rear corner of the left head. Right where the red circle is. It could run down to that area but I would think it would be seen also at that corner of the block and running down the rear.

 

Do you mean inside the black air collector? Is your oil level overfilled? I've seen oil come up through the PCV ducting and gather there.

 

Pull off your air intake. Clean it up. Then run your car with the air intake assembly off. You should be able to see oil appearing. My bet it the little access plates on top of the case where it comes together.

 

I can only say that in my case that the oil was definitely coming from the cylinder head gasket joint and not the connecting rod bolt access cover (I should be so lucky ) -- which is even weirder because the TR WSM figure, I think, shows that the hollow alignment dowel for the oil passage is at the lower rear corner on the 1-6 side:

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I had oil show up on my TR in the same place as yours Steve. It freaked me out! Like James (OP) I looked all over for a fitting that could have been leaking - finding nothing. I cleaned it up and checked it regularly to see if I could see where it was coming from. It never came back. The car probably had 30K miles at that point. I am at almost 50K now, about 13 years later.

 

My car did the exact same thing. I chased it for a while - it got a little worse after enthusiastic driving.

In my case the oil level may have been slightly excessive - the crankcase breather tube brought oil up into the airbox. Over time, while parked, the excess oil drips out of the corners of the airbox and onto the engine block (there are, from memory, holes cut near the left and right bottom corners of the airbox which permit drainage).

I changed my oil (and filled it to the correct level) and have not had the issue occur again. I do not think there is a reed valve inside preceding the vent hose which connects the engine block to the airbox, but that would just prevent air running back into the engine.

 

Very simple. I'd get a new nut, gasket and washer, take it off, clean it and put it back on with just a touch of sealant.
Or you could just put a nut on it and see if it stops. There is no pressure behind the plate. Just a lot of splash thrown off the rod big end.

The last picture is a good close up of where the high pressure oil passage to the head is. Its bone dry.

 

Yes, right lower. That is odd. Even the drillings to feed the intake cam do not go clear to the gasket surface.

 

That is what's known as a good day. Nice find and super easy fix. Back to enjoying the car from behind the wheel.