I hope everyone is off too a good start this new year. I have an oil leak puzzler for you all.

Oil has been accumulating on the block behind and below the oil pressure sender since I bought the truck in September.

I dutifully replaced the valve cover and pushrods cover gaskets, the oil filter, and oil pressure sender followed by a good pressure washing.

The block is no longer filthy, but after every 1,000 miles or so this pool reappears. The oil level on the dip stick drops about half way as well.

my guess is the oil pan gasket. What's yours?

thanks,

mick

 

My guess is a crappy or badly-installed sending unit.

 

Sender is whatever napa had off the shelf for about $20. How far should it be threaded into the block? I went until It was as far as it could go.

 

Those things are brass (and a tapered thread), that's a soft metal that's gonna strip easy.

In general, tighten it until it doesn't leak, then a little bit more to hold it tight. Sounds like you may have over-tightened and damaged/broke it.

 

The rearmost pushrod cover bolt looks over torqued in the pic, to me.

 

Which should be tightened significantly less than sending units like this one, those are even smaller fasteners.

Glue the gasket to the valve cover (I use Permatex No 2, sometimes High Tack), clean the mating surface on the head, (remove all foreign material), then snug the thing down until it doesn't leak + a little bit more to keep it from rattling off. Might need to be tightened down as the gasket material ages and shrinks.

 

when the weather warms up I'll redo the gaskets. I probably did over-torque everything as I am still learning the way of the wrench.

 

Kinda what I figured. How old are you?

 

People tend to over tighten the bolts that retain valve and pushrod covers, causing the areas surrounding their bolt holes to flare outwards.

Remove these parts, lay them on a flat surface and you'll see them resting on 'pedestals' instead of laying flat.

Plus, cork gaskets tend to shrink, even if they're new in a package.

The 240/300 I-6 pushrod cover is notorious for leaking oil. Use a rubber gasket instead of a cork gasket, as Ford recommended.

And: E4ZZ-9278-A (replaced B7T-9278-A; C7ZZ-9278-A; C9ZZ-9278-A) .. Oil Sending Unit-Use with Oil Pressure Dash Gauge (Motorcraft SW-1547-B) / Available from Ford & auto parts stores.

Applications: 1957/90's myriad FoMoCo vehicles.

Chris: The OP's "About Me" profile sez 9/14/1994. That's 50 years younger than I (9/9/1944) and 29 years younger than you.

 

10-4 on the rubber gasket. I am 22, so a few years younger than any carbureted vehicle.

 

And, younger than most members of this forum!

 

Neophyte car mechanic, too.