common lt-4 oil leaks

[novafink]

Hi all, I notice I have some oil leaking in 2 spots under my 96 ce, I haven't jacked it up yet, but curious what some of the common leaks on this motor are. Also it's a six speed car. Thanks for any info!

 

[Tuna]

LT4 or LT1 have the same 2 common oil leak areas.

The front and rear intake manifold seals are a common area.
The OptiSpark and/or the water pump shaft.

Check those areas first.

 

[Vettelt193]

Hi all, I notice I have some oil leaking in 2 spots under my 96 ce, I haven't jacked it up yet, but curious what some of the common leaks on this motor are. Also it's a six speed car. Thanks for any info!

What Tuna said

Just an FYI... All LT4 'vettes are 6-speed.

Mine leaks (and has since I bought it). I should have gotten into it by now to fix it, but it really isn't that big of a deal... I just keep waiting until something big breaks to give me a reason. Nothing yet has

 

[Skyguy007]

Are you sure it's oil? The "oil" leak I suspected on my GS turned out to be clutch fluid leaking from worn seals on the slave cylinder. I added clutch fluid and - wow - what a difference in the feel of the clutch. The trans also shifts a lot better than it used to. I understand that most 6-speed failures are due to poor clutch maintenance and now I believe it.

I'm sure the fluid level has been way low since I bought the car in 2003. Considering that it only took a few minutes to disconnect the battery and pull out the computer, I'm ashamed that I hadn't checked the fluid level before.

There's a new slave cylinder (from Doug Rippie Motorsports with their modifications) under my Christmas tree. I'll be replacing the master and slave cylinders and the tubing after the holidays. Curiously, the DRM slave cylinder is priced about the same as the standard part from GM. I'm told that there's much less likelihood of early failure with the DRM part.

 

[Vettelt193]

Are you sure it's oil? The "oil" leak I suspected on my GS turned out to be clutch fluid leaking from worn seals on the slave cylinder. I added clutch fluid and - wow - what a difference in the feel of the clutch. The trans also shifts a lot better than it used to. I understand that most 6-speed failures are due to poor clutch maintenance and now I believe it.

I'm sure the fluid level has been way low since I bought the car in 2003. Considering that it only took a few minutes to disconnect the battery and pull out the computer, I'm ashamed that I hadn't checked the fluid level before.

There's a new slave cylinder (from Doug Rippie Motorsports with their modifications) under my Christmas tree. I'll be replacing the master and slave cylinders and the tubing after the holidays. Curiously, the DRM slave cylinder is priced about the same as the standard part from GM. I'm told that there's much less likelihood of early failure with the DRM part.

I am sure it is oil... I am not sure if it was just coming from the tranny though. I just had the leak fixed on the tranny, so hopefully it all goes away I have a feeling the engine is leaking a bit too though

 

[JEFNLSA]

Mine leaks (and has since I bought it). I should have gotten into it by now to fix it, but it really isn't that big of a deal... I just keep waiting until something big breaks to give me a reason. Nothing yet has

What he said....

 

[novafink]

thanks for the info, I just bought the car, and they gave me a 30 day 50/50 warranty, so I took it in and told them to fix anything leaking. I am a little weary of most dealership mechanics on the vettes, but I guess they have a single guy for the vettes that has been doing it for years, so we will see what happens.

 

[wx briefer]

On mine, I had the dreaded manifold weep at around 50k. I replaced the camshaft at 66k and changed the crankpickup o-ring and resealed the manifold with the good GM stuff.

No more leaks until the rear main seal went out at around 75k or so. There are two small vent holes in the top of the engine rear bulkhead where the bellhousing mates up. These holes allow oil mist from leaking rear main seal to migrate up and out and then down the sides of the engine at the rear leading one to believe that the leak is from rear of intake manifold. However, the top of the intake manifold at the rear was clean so I suppected otherwise. After replacing the rear main seal, all is OK. So, once again, I have no leaks.

 

[novafink]

Well, it looks like tuna nailed it, it turns out it's the rear intake, and water pump shaft, I'm just glad it wasn't the pan or worse, thanks guys!