Trouble shooting oil leak with UV dye

Has anyone ever used UV dye to spot an oil leak??? :blink:

Hey man Welcome to BroncoZone... Well why would you use UV? That is for ac systems because it is a gas leak and they are very hard to see. Now oil leak you need a case of brake cleaner and a bunch of rags. Clean all the oil off it. What you do is spray and wipe all the places you suspect and then let the engine run while you look for where the oil comes from. You "could" drive it around of letting it idle don't work but then the oil is blown around and its hard to find the real leak. Now common places are the rear main, valve covers and oil pan. Now the valve covers are easy to replace but the oil pan and rear main is a pain in the @$$. But if you really want it fixed then its not problem either time or money. Good Luck...

Big_Ford_POS said:

Hey man Welcome to BroncoZone... Well why would you use UV? That is for ac systems because it is a gas leak and they are very hard to see. Now oil leak you need a case of brake cleaner and a bunch of rags. Clean all the oil off it. What you do is spray and wipe all the places you suspect and then let the engine run while you look for where the oil comes from. You "could" drive it around of letting it idle don't work but then the oil is blown around and its hard to find the real leak. Now common places are the rear main, valve covers and oil pan. Now the valve covers are easy to replace but the oil pan and rear main is a pain in the @$$. But if you really want it fixed then its not problem either time or money. Good Luck...

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Thank you for the welcome..... Well I did find stuff that is UV that works for Engine Oil ... I have done the clean and watch game... to much crap in the way... With Alt, Smog, PS, A/C and the brakets( spinng fan blade of death)... I replaced the Valve cover gasket on the driver side.... I could see where that was leaking... Since it's come from the front I ruled out rear seal.. Since no water in the oil I ruled out head gasket... I am down to Intake Manifold... or Timing chain cover or Main..

But on my 68 mustang I had with a 302 when my front main went out I did not get Oil above my water pump most of it just dribbled out the from the Balancer and down the oil pan... Currently I have oil pooling up on block by the Distrubtor and down the passager side behind Alt and Smog Pump...

Rest of the motor looks pretty clean... LOL Maybe because of Engine Brightening like 5 times....

tonyp0811 said:

Thank you for the welcome..... Well I did find stuff that is UV that works for Engine Oil ... I have done the clean and watch game... to much crap in the way...

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hmmm, please let us know how well it works out. I don't see how it will be any better... all the crap is still going to be in the way. Instead of a regular oil pool, you'll have a glowing oil pool.

But live and learn, I'm always open to new ideas.

Good luck, I hope it works for you.

joe

Sorry I didn't give you the benefit of the doubt I can't even tell you how many 15 year olds get on here and say there is oil on their drive way and how do you fix it. Sounds like you know what your talking about. Well If your like me and the drip drip of oil echoes from your garage as you try to sleep at night than you might just have to bit the bullet and buy a seal kit, pull apart the intake, distributor and timing cover. Then you realize you are exhaust bolts and tranny bolts from having it out so you pull it. Then you figure the oil pressure has not been then best so you (knowing the compression was great and it ran fine with 130K) buy mail bearings and do a ****** rebuild. Put it all back together and $650 later and all labor your own its fixed. Well thats how picky I was. Well it ran great and I replaced all the vacuum lines when I put it back in. But one problem....

400 miles later I burnt No. 8 piston so three weeks after I had it back on the road I ended up pulling it again and spending $1200 on parts and machine work (from Napa) on it anyways. Would the piston had blown if I did pull it the first time and elect to do a mini rebuild? No one will even know. But is doesn't oil. Oh and by the way at 130K my 302 crank had a good enough groove in it that I had to have Napa put a repair sleeve on it ( If the journals had alot of wear I would have replaced the crank but when STD. bearings the clearance was back to new spec. according to Hyanes). That was Oct 06 and the rear is still holding. With $500 in machine work Napa never charged me to hot tank the crank and install the sleeve (Sleeve cost: $10 ).

Well whatever you decide to do its your truck and your money and if you have to pay someone to fix it, I don't think the cost is worth it. But it you can do all the work then the cost of parts is not that bad at all. If your good with at setting the timing then pop the distributor and replace the o-ring. That was leaking on my truck also. The ring was like hard plastic @ 130K and I had to break it off. Good Luck man...

No Problem I understand been paging through this and the FSB forum site for a about a month now....Seen a lot of teens 1st truck asking a lot of basic questions. I do hear the sounds of oil dripping in my sleep LOL.... :lol: I have had 3 classic mustangs 2 68's and 1 69 Mach 1 Big Block a 92 and 93 LX 5.0, 97 Cobra and currently have a 07 Cobra... So pickey.. LOL yeah it makes my wife mad on how **** I am and one of my friends laughs and does not think I am ananl enough...

My 1st 68 mustang the main was leaking on... I remember everytime I filled up the gas tank I put a least 3 qts of oil in it... I use to buy cases of cheap oil and just leave them in the trunk... LOL... Not sure how many miles I ran it like that 75K... matter of fact put that same motor in my 2nd 68 and ran it for at least another year like that... When I finally went to rebuild the motor... The Main bearings had more play then 40 year old ******...

But not sure if I am ready to pull the block for a rebuild on this truck yet... Mostly b/c I have a funny feeling it was done about the 120K-130k mark which would make it about 2 owners and 50-60K ago.... I have been trying to find someone that has replaced the manifold gasket, and the O ring as well as timing chain cover gasket, with some nice step by steps and pictures.... But I did figure if it's the manifold then I would more then likely be at least putting new injectors figure what the **** I am in there already might as well if not even putting an edelbrock EFI Plenum and manifold on it... Also toyed with the idea of just buying a rebuilt 302 and building up a 2nd motor and just **** a swap... Just this is the 1st time I have done an EFI motor b4, so I am mostly afraid of breaking thoes britlle plastic vaccum lines.... Heck broke one when change out the plugs and wires when I 1st got it... had to get creative and fab me a sleave for it...

I did put the UV stuff in it. let it sit over night to make sure it all got to the pan... Cleaned motor off again... Fired up it let it sit there and idel... No Leak from main... figured that would start off spitting out right away...Kept on watching it... let if run 30 minutes plus... no leak... pawed over the whole thing... not a drop off oil... ( could it be the leak has magically stopped) LOL yeah right.... So I decided ok I will take it on a little spin.... 3.5 miles I pulled in and there it was glowing all over where I had seen it pooling up... driverside next to Distributor... running down behind the A/C and pooling up on the back of the P/S pump dripping off of that and on to the lower radiator house and on to the ground as well as running down the side of the timing chain cover and pooling up on the lip of the oil pan and running down the side...... So it seems that it only shoots oil while under a load... So... What could it be??? I am thinking for sure mainfold at this point.... Andbody any ideas?

tonyp0811 said:

So I decided ok I will take on a little spin.... 3.5 miles I pulled in and there it was glowing all over where I had seen it pooling up... driverside next to Distributor... running down behinde the A/C and pooling up on the back of the P/S pump dripping off of that and on to the lower radiator house and on to the ground...

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Just curious...

Did the UV dye help at all?

BroncoJoe19 said:

Just curious...Did the UV dye help at all?

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I think it helped confrim that it was not more then the leak on the driver side... still not 100% it's the but I am 85% sure it's the manifold...

As much oil is coming out I know it could not be the Valve cover leaking still... but not sure on the distributor O ring... never ahd one go out...

So I don;t know how much oil that throughs out... since it directly connected to the oil pump after all...

Well it is hard to say without seeing it but if you pull the lower intake and timing cover then pull the injector and for $120 Napa will flow test and clean and put new caps on them. Its as good as buying rebuilt ones and cheaper. Then if one is bad you only have to buy that one. I would do the distributor o-ring before anything and see if you get lucky. And then clean it up and watch the top of the motor while you rev it up with the throttle body. As for those stupid vacuum lines. Go buy a roll of vacuum hose from the auto store and replace them as you break them or all at once. You wouldn't believe how many of them are broke behind the upper intake. What i did was take the rubber hose and slip it over the hose up to half an inch from the connection so i could still see what color it was for future troubleshooting. I wouldn't just use it to couple breaks back together because then it can break someplace else. Then you don't have to worry about it later.

tonyp0811 said:

I think it helped confrim that it was not more then the leak on the driver side... still not 100% it's the but I am 85% sure it's the manifold...As much oil is coming out I know it could not be the Valve cover leaking still... but not sure on the distributor O ring... never ahd one go out...

So I don;t know how much oil that throughs out... since it directly connected to the oil pump after all...

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Overall, changing the valvecover gaskets is easy enough, replacing the o-ring on the distributer should be easy enough. What you want to be careful about is that should you/ when you change the distributer, prior to pulling it, MARK it so that when you reinstall it, that it lines back up in the same position that it was in when you pulled it.

Yeah I thought about doing the O-ring 1st and see if I get lucky... The carzy part is I clean it up a little last night and let it idle for a little bit and the rev'd it up from the TB... Nothing no gieser of oil... LOL. I will try and take some photos when I get home and post them...Here are some pictures....

The 1st one is top by the Distributor... to the right and left og that mostly to the right is where the oil i spooling up... Best part that was after I clean it up and little and let it run for 30 min in th edrive way.... even rev'd it up a few times to about 3K and at one time I even put it into gear.... the rest I did not wipe down... but u can see where the oil is leaking down the side... and collecting on the p/s pump and the oil pan lip....

hows your pcv setup? if for some reason your pcv is clogged when you get on the truck it could be blowing oil out of the vc gasket, oil dipstick tube or anywhere. its kinda hard to see from the pics

Valve Covers are clean... I did changed out the driverside VC gasket a week ago and I will say the bolts were lose.... and I tightened the

ones that I could get to on the passenger side that I could reach... w/o taking of the plenum... PCV valve on the valve cover I replaced 3 days after I got the truck which I think is 3 weeks ago... Not sure if the line connecting to it is clogged... but the valve is new...

The list of things I have done since getting truck 3 weeks ago....

Driver window motor repaired

Rear window fix (saftey switch bypassed)

2 Oil changes

1 Transfuild & filter change w/ new TCI deep pan.

Front and Rear diff fuild changed ( rear axle bearing and seal replaced) new Rear diff cover...

New Cap

New Rotor

New Plugs and wires (no abnormal fouling on old plugs)

EGR Valve and sensor replaced

Also new tires...

and rear brakes.(Which only needed to be replaced b/c of all the gear grease on it)

Front brakes where new... ( i think the rear had been also)

Engne cleaned like 6 times...

Oh and the interior cleaned.... lol...

tonyp, I had similar trouble chasing down an oil leak ,well about 5 or 6 all together. The number one rule of thumb is this: Oil runs downhill, not up. So, if the oil is on top of the intake manifold, in the front, you may have one or more bolts leaking the oil. Have you checked to see if any are loose? there are a couple that go into water passages in the heads, and will leak coolant on top of the manifold. i think you're PCV valve and the hard line is on the other side and in back. But the line can become clogged with sludge, and the oil is looking for an escape route. Oil will often build up in the air filter box when you have excess blow-by and higher crankcase pressure. Beware that if you decide to pull the upper intake and try to remove the lower manifold, there is a good chance that one or more of the lower manifold bolts will break off inside the heads. I've run into this problem on several Broncos and F-150's, icluding my 88. The bolts going through the water jackets get corroded so bad they will just break off. Be very careful even if you just try to slightly tighten any of the bolts. You're only checking if they are loose, like the valve cover bolts were. One last tip that helped me find my leaks. I used a small mirror on a stick, like a dentist uses, and a good flashlight. this allowed me to see in some of the tight places, and follow the fresh oil trail up to the leak from below. In my case, the main leak was the garage that installed the longblock kit forgot to plug the dipstick hole in the block, since my oil pan has the dipstick. I was losing about 1 quart/ 100 miles out of the 5/16" hole in the block! JSM84

Justshootme... I had similar problem with the dip stick tube before on my 2nd 68 when.... And the oil run down and not up is what lead me to away from my front main seal lol.... I have not checked the manifold bolts as of yet but I was thinking about to trying that 1st.... But I do have a question.... I am a little rusty at some of this have not messed with a small block push rod ford in at least 8 years.... On the Manifold just to the right of the Distributoryou can barely make it out in the 1st pic there is a sensor that taps into the manifold... Correct me if I am wrong but is that the temp sensor?? could that be leaking oil?? Hard to make out in the 1st picture but u can see it...

Yeah you are correct that is a temp sensor for coolant. If it has a plug and two wires it is for the computer and if it has threads and is just one wire it is a sending unit for your gauges. Your Oil Pressure is that one in the picture with the oil filter. It is probably a good idea if you have a socket that fits it too pull it and put some new teflon tape on it. Really man I would just pull the intake and put all new gaskets on the top side. And if you don't plan a rebuild soon replace the timing chair and eliminate that as a suspect. Now be carful if you "overtorque" your valve cover it WILL leak. They do not require much torque and it is why they were loose when you removed it the first time. Out of six bolts on each cover, I had to loosen maybe two on each. The rest I were finger tight. And Also for those and the intake make sure you torque in "sequence" very important.

Yeah it's the thread in kind so it's just to the sending... that is was I thought... Now if I can get a weekend where I have nothing going on....

tonyp, here's a link to an exploded view of the 5.0L EFI V8 in your 89 Bronco (from Steve83's supermotors gallery):

http://www.supermotors.net/vehicles/registry/media/309277

That should help you see the coolant sender byh the distributor, and other parts. I'm gonna diagnose this as a front intake manifold gasket leak. The front bolt on each side of the intake goes into a water passage in the heads, so if the bolt was broken, you'd be leaking coolant and not oil. Just recently worked on a friend's 94 Bronco with that problem. The next bolt is a few inches back of the front one, and it's unlikely oil would run from that area to the front. I'd check if that is tight anyway, if you can reach it. The only other leak in that area around the front of the intake is the distributor seal like previously posted. replacing the gasket is going to be a task, but may be a blessing in disguise. I'll lay odds that one or both of those front manifold bolts going through the heads will break off while trying to remove them. These would someday break on their own and leave you searching for more coolant to make it 250 miles home from the beach on a holiday weekend. If you don't already have a HAynes or Chilton repair manual for your Bronco, iwould suggest getting one or both from your local auto parts store. they're not expensive ($15-$20) and will help you out witht removing and re-installing the upper and lower intake manifolds. The manual also lists the torque sequence you need to follow when tightening all the bolts on the loweer manifold when it goes back in. Your leak is kind of like a rear main seal leak in that you can go for awhile as long as you keep putting more oil into the motor. One last thing. IF you do happen to break a bolt off inside one of the heads, it's almost easier to just get rebuilt heads vs having a shop drill out the old bolt and re-tap the hole. I did this on two bolts on my 460, but it was a real PITA. A machine shop will likely charge you about $75-$80 per hole for the work. JSM84

Justshootme84 said:

tonyp, here's a link to an exploded view of the 5.0L EFI V8 in your 89 Bronco (from Steve83's supermotors gallery):
http://www.supermotors.net/vehicles/registry/media/309277

That should help you see the coolant sender byh the distributor, and other parts. I'm gonna diagnose this as a front intake manifold gasket leak. The front bolt on each side of the intake goes into a water passage in the heads, so if the bolt was broken, you'd be leaking coolant and not oil. Just recently worked on a friend's 94 Bronco with that problem. The next bolt is a few inches back of the front one, and it's unlikely oil would run from that area to the front. I'd check if that is tight anyway, if you can reach it. The only other leak in that area around the front of the intake is the distributor seal like previously posted. replacing the gasket is going to be a task, but may be a blessing in disguise. I'll lay odds that one or both of those front manifold bolts going through the heads will break off while trying to remove them. These would someday break on their own and leave you searching for more coolant to make it 250 miles home from the beach on a holiday weekend. If you don't already have a HAynes or Chilton repair manual for your Bronco, iwould suggest getting one or both from your local auto parts store. they're not expensive ($15-$20) and will help you out witht removing and re-installing the upper and lower intake manifolds. The manual also lists the torque sequence you need to follow when tightening all the bolts on the loweer manifold when it goes back in. Your leak is kind of like a rear main seal leak in that you can go for awhile as long as you keep putting more oil into the motor. One last thing. IF you do happen to break a bolt off inside one of the heads, it's almost easier to just get rebuilt heads vs having a shop drill out the old bolt and re-tap the hole. I did this on two bolts on my 460, but it was a real PITA. A machine shop will likely charge you about $75-$80 per hole for the work. JSM84

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JSM84 thanks for the link.... I do have both a Chiltons and a Haynes book for the truck ...Had the Chiltons b4 I even had the truck... lol.... If I was real ********* I would have the complete Ford Shop Manuals like I had for my 69 Mach 1....