Oil leak

[Kaptain Kadian]

I am having an oil leak that I am not positive where it is coming from. I know that it is dripping from the flywheel cover after I drive for a while. It is not a large amount of oil, but is enough to be annoying. I did an engine swap in 2008 and put in a jasper motors 383 stroker. I haven't driven it a lot since I did the swap, but have been driving it more lately. I got under the truck to see if I could figure out where it was coming from and found that a lot of the bolts on the tranny pan and oil pan where loose. I tightened them back up, and drove it again today to have it leak again. Any suggestions on what to do would be greatly appreciated.

[trac209]

Rear main seal most probably. If not that check distributor gasket as well.

[geezer#99]

You gotta make it almost white glove clean and then look for the leak source.

[airdale94]

Back of valve covers, rear of intake, distributor, rear oil pan seal, or rear main.

[Kaptain Kadian]

Thanks for the responses. There is also oil on the starter. Does that indicate anything? I have probably put less than 1,000 miles on the truck since I did the motor swap. Super frustrating to have a motor leak that fast. I have had this truck for 16 years and it as always leaked oil from one place or another.

[geezer#99]

Oil on starter is usually valve covers or maybe the oil is coming from the bolt holes in the block right in front of the fuel pump.
Do you have a proper working pcv?

[davepl]

Where the oil winds up offers clues, but with the amount of air turbulence under a car oil can wind up a long way from where it leaked out originally.

Back of the intake is probably the most common leak. The valve covers, then rear main seal. Then maybe timing cover and pan.

Geezer mentioned the PCV and don't overlook it. Without a breather if your PCV jams you're going to build positive crankcase pressure and oil will find a way out if that happens.

[asolde]

All good advice. You can wipe down your engine and add dye to your oil run your engine with a black light and see exactly where it is leaking.

[Kaptain Kadian]

Thanks for the advice. I have replaced both valve cover gaskets and it still appears to have a leak. I checked the back of the intake and the oil pressure unit and they appear to be dry. I did notice a little bit of oil on the fuel pump. I am also going to replace the pcv system just in case it happens to be bad. I am still afraid that it is either the oil pan or rear main. I don't know if I want to tackle either of those problems. Thanks for the help, I will try and keep things updated as I go.

[geezer#99]

That narrows it down.
There's two bolt holes right in front of the fuel pump. One is used to put a long bolt in to hold the fuel pump pushrod up when changing the fuel pump. Measure the depth of those holes and put some short bolts in.