So it would appear that distributor orientation is the least of my worries. Got into the garage today and started fitting tinware and ancillaries….. filled the engine with oil while I was at it and guess what? Still got an oil leak in near enough the same place
Just below the cam plug, I’m certain it was the cam plug that was leaking before but now I’m wondering, definitely didn’t notice anything wrong with the casings in that area but then I wasn’t really studying it that closely.
What a bummer! Well, the obvious question is why not? Yeah, I know it's easy to say this with hindsight but I would have been having a close look at everything around there - but then I'm the twit who had the same engine out 5x in one week looking for what turned out to be a cracked case so I learned the hard way.
I’d like to think I would have noticed something like that, like I say I wasn’t exactly studying it but I went over all the mating surfaces removing old sealant when I first opened it up so I’m pretty certain an obvious issue would have been, well,….. obvious. Oh well here we go again…
Maybe it wasn't obvious until bolting the halves together opened it up and even then might not be visible? The one that had me fooled did leak a lot because it was in a pressured location, but I had to pry it with a crowbar to actually see it. Best you can do right now is thoroughly degrease and look. If that doesn't work you can get UV dye to add to the oil, degrease again and try that. https://www.demon-tweeks.com/ring-u...118690&istItemId=wptrtapap&istBid=t&gclsrc=ds
You should find out where/why it's leaking. Repeating the same action expecting a different result is the first sign of madness.
No I mean just as a matter of course- the new plug is a tight fit but after fitting not so tight, I assumed that it was standard practice to fit a new one whenever the case was split to always ensure a good seal. I’m fairly confident the leak isn’t coming from the plug itself.
I guess as most people will be doing a rebuild when fitting the plug they would use a new one, but I doubt it's essential. I've reused them without leaks and if you're confident it's not the cause of your own leak I wouldn't be concerned about replacing it again. I hope you do manage to track down your leak as it's a long loop round to get back to where you are just crossing your fingers and hoping it'll be ok next time. I'd be trying the dyes at this point - a few quid could save a lot of heartache.
I suppose in the worst case, the ridge on the cam plug being in the wrong place (too far in/ too far out) could be holding the case halves open a bit - You should really be able to hit it with carb cleaner, wipe it down then hold some absorbent paper towel to it, and see where the damp spots grow from if its leaking fast. Or use @zeds dye for an easier way to spot the oil.
