Help me find the source of oil spray in engine compartment in my 355

I have a slight oil spray in the engine compartment after every drive. I have tried to locate it by feeling behind the engine for leaks but just can’t locate the source. There is no oil to bee seen in that area either.

I think it is motor oil, but because it is so very little it is hard to determine (could be hydraulic oil). It is also a little weird that it is on the wall and seems to come from on top of the engine and not from beneath it!

Does any one have any ideas of what could be the source? From what I can tell it is not much that leaks every time, it is not greasy behind the engine. I have taken the plastic cover off and there are no signs of oil between the cylinder banks either. Any help appreciated
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Just by writing it down I think I found the source. I am pretty sure it is the hydraulic oil cap that leaks due to too much oil.
How do I measure the oil level in the correct way? When checking it, engine off it is way over the top most mark on the stick!
And does the cap look intact? Is the hole supposed to look like that?
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Only fill to the minimum mark or a little less.

 

forgive my ignorence, but that looks like a PS cap. is it? that would explain the pressure.

 

It is. How does that explain what pressure?

His P.S. is over filled.


Simple.


Fill to or below the low mark.

 

when over filled the expansion due to heat and low/high pressure pumping will build pressure in the tank. hence the need for an air gap, no gap and oil comes squirting out.

here's a question, the pump builds the pressure and sends it to the rack, from there it returns to the tank. it should be under the same system pressure but reduced via a needle valve so the flow rate is reduced right? same pressure different rate. no gap and the pressure builds slower but builds enough to cause the oil to escape under pressure when it reaches the vent.

or am i out in left field.

all i know is once you introduce pressure into a closed system you can't reduce it unless you drop it into a vented holding tank and cycle it back out. you can change flow but not pressure, unless you want to increase it.

 

I deleted my earlier post... In the 348/355 there was a thread about oil checking, and I must have gotten the two confuzeld.

 

The return is through a much larger hose and pipe into a cavity that is open to atmosphere so very, very little pressure in the pipe. Do to the reservoir being open to atmosphere when the fluid arrives it becomes zero pressure, unless the reservoir is filled to the breather hole.


Challenge cars had a hose connected to the breather hole and routed into a catch bottleto prevent that from happening.

When Ferrari went to the ZF bottle they miscalculated the size needed and those are too small. It is the danger of just using an off the shelf part designed for a different application. The fix has been to fill to the low mark or less to prevent that problem.

 

Thanks for the info!
Can I use a syringe to remove the excess or is there a better way?

 

Turkey baster.

 

You tought me a new word today, never heard of turkey baster before. We dont eat Turkey that often here in Sweden, but I have seen it in movies ) Found this on Chef's Resource
http://www.chefsresource.com/turkey-baster.html

Understand now!