Find My oil leak?

[Davemotohead]

396 BB with less than 1000 miles on it,,Runs perfect but has a pesky oil leak I cannot seem to pinpoint,,it seems to drip off the starter nose cone and get on the ring gear and fling everywhere,,,BUT! Its not leaking from the Valve cover gasket,,not the intake or distributor base,,the center of the flex plate is dry on both sides so not a rear main seal,,its only on the ring gear itself,,the rear of the block is dry,,belhousing is dry,,oil presure gauge line is dry,,galley plug and cam plug on the back of the block is dry,,everything seems dry but the starter nose and ring gear on the flex plate? Any Idea's??

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by Davemotohead

....it seems to drip off the starter nose cone and get on the ring gear and fling everywhere,,,BUT! Its not leaking from the Valve cover gasket,,not the intake or distributor base,,the center of the flex plate is dry on both sides so not a rear main seal,,its only on the ring gear itself,,the rear of the block is dry,,belhousing is dry,,oil presure gauge line is dry,,galley plug and cam plug on the back of the block is dry,,everything seems dry but the starter nose and ring gear on the flex plate? Any Idea's??

You say everything is dry but also say the oil is flung everywhere? I'm slightly confused here. Did you wash the engine completely with cleaner and then check it with the bell housing inspection cover off?

Only other place that comes to mind is the oil pressure sending unit but remember that centrifugal motion will force any oil out into the outer area of the flex plate unto the ring gear.

[SS Tim]

These are the "fun" leaks to chase. Is it an auto or manual trans? How much are you leaking? Is it a static leak or only when the engine is running? Have you tried cleaning it really well (brake clean) and using a spay on foot powder or uv dye to locate the source? Have you pulled the starter to look around?

[Davemotohead]

Inspecdtion cover is off,,the oil is flinging everywhere from getting on the flex plate,,yes cleaned it up and tried pinpointing the leak with no luck,,BUT!!! lol,,Just talked to my bud who is a BB guy and rebuilds camaro's,,he said on some of the BB engines GM drilled the starter bolts to deep and they get into an oil area and will cause a leak that drips off the starter,,so next thing will be to pull the starter bolts and slap some permatex on the threads and seal them up,,Kinda hope this is it,,??? thoughts?