Hi, i have a 1966 f250 custom cab with a 352 v8. it has an edelbrock performer intake and a holley 600 carb. i have a small puddle of oil sitting on top of my intake manifold... the runs patter shows that it is coming from where the carb mounts to the intake? i have no idea why there is oil there -.-
any help appreciated.

 

Its probably blinker fluid....

 

Under a stock intake manifold is (or should be) a baffle whose job is to keep hot oil off the underside of the intake manifold. If the baffle or manifold gaskets are not sealing properly, that might be your problem. Don't know if having the Edelbrock eliminates the necessity for the baffle. It might be worth investigating. Good luck.

 

A quick few questions about this ... how old is the engine.. as in how many miles, and years? Next, How is your compression? Do you have a PCV valve with a hose running to your carb vacuum port, or air cleaner or breather running to the air cleaner, ? Let me explain... I had these symptoms on my FE My first thought was to check the valve covers, and reseal them. No avail on that they were not leaking.. later I started to develop a mild stumble after idling for a while. Well after a long bit of taking things apart, it turned out that the Compression was low due to bad rings (cracked Rings) not sealing the cylinders. It was causing excessive blow by. and was pushing oil out through the breather, and the PCV. Both of which had hoses running to carb. or Air cleaner body. On hard acceleration oil was getting pushed through the lines and settling in the carb, dripping off of the bottom of the air cleaner assembly, onto my pretty Edelbrock manifold. on hard acceleration it was simply burned off in teh cylinders, but when coming to idle it would pool in the air cleaner, and drip out around the air cleaner gasket, and the carb gasket, and riser. It is a worst case scenario, but check compression, and also oil pressure, if you have low oil pressure, you might be looking at a rebuild in your near future.. I sincerely hope not though! Just food for thought!

 

No the Edelbrock does not eliminate the need for the baffle pan, but installing the Edelbrock requires removal of the left front Dowel pin, on the front of the block. Edelbrock also suggest's not using front and rear seals on the Manifold but instead 1/4in. or larger bead of high temp RTV, in place of the front and rear seals.

 

another possibility.....

Are you running stock valve covers?

If you're running some cheap, aftermarket valve covers without baffles under the PCV, then oil could be getting sucked into the carburetor through the PCV and leaking out onto the manifold.

It's kind of a far out scenario, but worth mentioning.

 

Oh god i hope its not a rebuild. To the best of my knowledge the engine has never been rebuilt, it has 37k on it still runs excellent, havnt checked the compression yet. and yes the guy who owned it put on aftermarket valve covers but it does have the baffles under neath the pcv valve and the breather. i think the first thing i will do is check the compression.
thanks guys il keep you posted. chris

 

Chris another thing to check is pull the valve covers and see if the heads and the manifold have a smooth transition where they meet under the valve covers. This can causethe valve covers to not seat properly and cause a leak that will cause pooling on the Manifold, it can also cause a leaks down the front and back of the block, on the back it will appear to be a rear main leak. Ford in their ultimate wisdom ran the intake manifold part way under the valve covers... Well installing an Edelbrock manifold, you have to make sure that the Edelbrock sits flush with the heads at the 4 mating points under the valve covers, if it doesn't it needs to be milled to match... I had this problem also about a year before my rebuild. Like you I have a 352 FE, and getting that aftermarket manifold and valve covers to seal is a bit of a game, once you do they are pretty tight. Oh one other thing.... pull your PCV and breather lines that you may have and check the PCV and breather, and the hoses for oil in them, that is a pretty good place to start, run you engine for about 10 -20 minutes and run it as you would on the highway, then stop and check for oil in the PCV breather system, if you have oil ther, then you can confirm it with a compression test. If No Oil start checking the valve covers for leaks or intake manifold for leaks.