308 Head Gasket Leaking Oil??????

Good day Bill,

No direct experience with this issue, however, there could be a number of reasons why this is happening:

a. Heads require a re-torque
b. Head warped do to an engine overheat (i.e. boil over), etc
c. Head to Block mating surfaces were not thoroughly cleaned. Perhaps some residue was on the mating surface(s) and so this is preventing the gasket from sealing
d. Head cracked (?)

I would re-torque the heads and see if this helps. If not, then I would do some additional tests (leak-down, etc) to help identify head integrity.... although I would imagine you would see other issues if this was the case (poor performance, oil in coolant, coolant in oil, etc).

Cheers,

Sam

 

There is an oil passage in the area you describe that supplies oil to the camshafts (IIRC through a hollow dowel pin). It is not too unusual to have a leak there. Probably all you can do is try re-torquing the head although I wouldn't expect success from this. The most likely fix would require a new head gasket and possibly resurfacing the head.

 

I realize you said it looks like it is coming from the head gasket but it could be from another source. Are your camshafts plugged? There was a tech bulletin on this many years ago which I can dig out for you. Also there is a rubber O ring near the splines on the distributor shaft. It didn't do much to prevent oil from the hollow camshaft getting into that casting that holds the distributor, hence the plug.

Carefully mark the position of the housing and the rotor and remove the distributor. Then stick a piece of coathanger wire into the axial hole in the camshaft. If it goes in more than about 5" you need to remove and plug your camshafts. I would live with the leak until your next belt change then take care of it. Removing the cams sure makes valve adjusting easy. Search the articles here and there are plenty of postings on the procedure.