I have an oil leak (standard fitment, of course) that I can't work out where is originating from...

The starter is getting covered in oil, to the point the frame rail immediately opposite it is getting wet, and the exhaust heat shield gets a build up that burns off.

The rocker covers are, for once, not leaking, and I've cleaned/degreased both sides of the engine since last doing them.

Looking up from underneath, the oil does not appear to be coming from the front of the engine, but about half way back, it suddenly is quite wet:

Front end is dry:

If it were the valley gasket at the back of the engine, I can't see how oil would make it this far forward? I'm also not dropping much on the ground, the odd drop. I think most is worryingly ending up being burnt off. I thought head gasket perhaps, but from what I can see there is only one oil feed up to the heads, and that is on the front end of the engine above the cylinders...

Definitely a strange one, Just remembered you’ve got a Thor lump, so not easy to pop the coils out and get a mirror down the back,,

Problem with any oil leak is that the fan blows back over the engine so where it ends up may be nowhere near where it is coming out. Only place I can think of is the sump gasket.

Agree that fan draught and under-car airflow sweeps minor oil (and water!) leaks all over the place so its hard to locate the source. Point of deposition has more to do with swirls and eddies in the flow than anything else.

Similar cable and pipe oil wetting on mine seems to have pretty much gone away since I changed the front crankshaft oil seal and, of necessity, re-did the sump joint a couple or three years ago.

Clive

I've just popped to screwfix to buy a pump sprayer with a hose, so I can give that side and the front cover another degreasing underneath, to hopefully spot where it is coming from. How it is getting on top of the frame rail, and on the heat shield of the exhaust is weird.

Only spotted this while swapping the alternator to try and deal with a weird disintegrating bearing like noise when the ancillaries are under load... the replacement I put on howled like a bastard! Came straight back off.... anyone got a quiet Thor alternator they fancy donating? :P

Last time I looked at a Thor alternator that had been diagnosed as having a noisy bearing it felt fine while spinning it with my fingers and the howling was actually coming from the idler pulley below it. I'm a little intrigued though. What were you doing under the car when you were changing an alternator that lives on the top?

Ooh, what pump sprayer did you get? Any good?

It's not the idler pulleys or the tensioner on his one - we swapped them all the other week with spares that I had to try and eliminate the sound.

The only thing that really sounded a bit manky was the alternator (crude stethoscope whilst spinning things individually with the belt off).

Looking at your pics - mine has the same moisture on the starter motor... so not 100% sure where it could be coming from either - I figured valley gasket at the rear, but haven't gotten around to poking my USB endoscope camera down there to have a look yet!

Ended up underneath the car when it started smoking up from the side of the engine on startup.

As Marty said - its not the pulleys or tensioner. It's either in the alternator, or its coming from under the rocker cover behind... I hope its the alternator, its the easier thing to swap to find out. Another nail in this engines coffin if not at this point.

Morat - just a screwfix cheapy but with a hose, so I can get underneath the engine. The normal handheld pump sprayer doesn't really work upside down..

https://www.screwfix.com/p/sx-cs5-white-black-pressure-sprayer-5ltr/7490x

Well. I have good news.

I will soon know where the leak(s) are coming from, with nice easy access on an engine stand.

The bad news is the flex plate is cracked in at least two places, and this seems to be the cause of the horrendous noise coming from something when the engine is hot and load is put on the engine at idle.

Cock.

Drivers side cat is also rattling... so that will be swapped with a pre-emptied Y pipe, heat shields fixed/replaced, oil leaks (hopefully) fixed, and a quick clean up... all slightly annoying as none of this solves the coolant loss or oil burning, and I plan to replace the engine sometime next year. But on the other hand, given the flex plate might let go at any point, it needs to be done.

Commiserations you don't seem to be having much luck :(

I suppose something major-ish had to go wrong sooner or later. I've been using it daily for 18 months since moving, and the last 6 months it hasn't had much more than an oil change and fluid top off when needed.

A weekend in the infamous Swindon P38 workshop in a couple of weeks and it should be patched up for a while longer! In the meantime.. it's time for the E39 to get insured/taxed/MOT'd this week to give the RR a rest. That was always the plan once my house etc was sorted. The p38 was never meant to be the daily driver... but it just does a good job at everything. And sounds good both inside and outside while it does... which reminds me... the sound system inside my 5 series is crap. Must address that at some point...

Well, with the engine out it seems like the valley gasket could be the cause of the leak. Or the front cover, it's not all that clear... It really looks like it's coming from the head gasket. But there is no oil galley there... So it can't be.

Oh, and it came with a free jigsaw puzzle:

I think I was lucky to get to the Swindon P38 centre to be honest. Not quite obvious in the photos but the plate around the centre boss was twisting and not long from breaking free. The clamping ring was all that was holding it together - once the last bolt was removed it all fell on the floor.

Wow... I have recently been idly looking at 4.6 V8s on ebay (cheap ones seem to be a bit scarce at the moment) but then I don't need a project, I already have the Scimitars and still harbour a burning desire for a Series 2 109".

How the hell was that holding together, think your extremely lucky to have made Swindon..

Friction fit :P

Well after a lot of degreasing and replacing of valley, front cover and front main gaskets, oil cooler orings, replacement of body heat shields with new ones that were hand crafted with dimpled ali sheet, swapping out of the Y pipe to a decatted one, the engine went back in. With a new flex plate, obviously. Considered a bit of tape on the old one but couldn't find the roll!

Also replaced the oil pump gears. My engine has always been quite rattly, and while the pump gears that came out weren't cracked, they did have quite a bit of pitting. Anyway - I'm quite sure a lot of the rattle has now gone - be it from higher oil pressure or the gears being worn I don't know.

Still need to run water glass through it to seal up no6 for the time being, but for now at least, its happy again. And with even more V8 rumble.

Day 2:

Martin with his massive tool:

Can just about see the top bits of new heat shields. I could have gotten these better, the passenger side I got a bit wrong as I was using the remains of the crap old fibreglass ones as templates - it wasn't until fitting to the vehicle I realised a middle section was entirely missing of the original, so mine was too short!

I'd strongly suggest checking your heat shields... this was sat on the exhaust.

Moved back out of the workshop by itself, making all the right noises again :)

It's alive!! And so is Marty :)
I think you guys should go halves on that workshop :D :D

Disappointingly, the oil leak persists. It's not coming from the rocker cover, and I can't see it coming from the rear valley gasket as we changed that and the end seals etc. I am perplexed. Again it's building up and appears to be coming from the cylinder head joint... But so far as I can work out, there should be no oil passageways there?

Course there is, how else does the oil get to and from the rocker shafts? However, the feed goes up around the front, inner head bolt and the return dribbles down the pushrod holes so highly unlikely to be anywhere near the head gasket joint.

The rear valley rubber with the little prongs that supposedly sit neatly between the head are a pain, if not seated properly they willlet oil past eventually, might be worth putting the mirror down there and double checking it’s sealed,