Oil leak near oil pressure relief

[gbrady28]

I'm having a hard time tracking down the source of an oil leak on my 1985 1.9L and I think I may have figured it out but would love so opinions. I replaced the main seal which helped reduce the leak but unfortunately that wasn't the only source. I've noticed it most prominently dripping from the plug for the oil pressure relief so I was hoping that was it but after replacing the metal washer nothing changed. I'm guessing at this point it's either the oil pressure switch which looks like it has some oil on it or the blind plug. Both of those seem difficult to address with the engine in place. Any thoughts?

Thanks

[DanHoug]

an $8 bottle of ultra violet dye for motor oil and a $15 UV flashlight will reveal all...

spray wash the engine clean, tho even that isn't totally necessary, add the UV dye in the evening or a dark garage, run the motor 1 minute, shut it off and start looking.
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[gbrady28]

I forgot to mention, it doesn't seem to leak doing light driving or just running in the driveway so it's been hard to track the leak after I clean the engine. I need to push the engine a bit which I do by driving up a hill on the highway so by the time I get home the oil has blown all over again. It's possible that it still seeps a bit without doing that so I can still give the dye a shot.

[DanHoug]

even if the engine is oily, the dye will streak down and be visible in contrast as long as the engine isn't run TOO long and the newly dyed oil is all over the place. so. get the engine hot, even if gets drippy, then add dye then look after a brief test run.

what you DON'T want to do is add dye and look a few hours later, EVERYTHING will fluoresce then. gotta catch it right as it comes out of the leak.
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[Hatterasker]

Seems to be trickling down from the back, right?

Does the 1.9 1985 have an oil pressure switch as shown in Bentley at 17.7? Might be that, just to the left of the oil pump and jammed in a weird spot.

I just replaced mine. Once I took off the water pump wheel, it was pretty easy.

Turns out my leak is from higher up, maybe at the distributor shaft or the plate over the oil pump at the very top of the motor.

_________________
1990 Vanagon Westfalia

[gbrady28]

It does have the oil pressure switch and unfortunately it's in a pretty difficult to reach spot. I believe I need to remove a lower coolant elbow to access it and the last time I took that elbow off it was a chore getting it back on.
I also have a very slight leak from around the distributor that I need to address but it's not so much that it's dripping. I've read about replacing a gasket on the distributor shaft which I have but when I took it apart I didn't see one which puzzled me. I'm not sure if some of them just don't have it? I'd definitely give that a try.
I'm going to give the dye a shot when I get a chance and see what I come up with but my hunch is it's the switch.

[Hatterasker]

If you go at the oil pressure switch, remove the belt and the wheel for the water pump. I think those bolts are 13 mm. Once I did that, it was a snap and I could access the switch. It was two hours of frustration until I removed that wheel and then it became a 20 minute job.

The Switch is 24 mm (medium well, not the super deep). The base that connects it to the block is 22mm. The base came out when I pulled the switch. Before removing anything though, maybe clean the area around the switch as much as possible so gunk doesn't interfere with rethreading.

I replaced the copper (brass?) seal at the base/block interface. It's something that O'Reilly actually had to my surprise.

I get nervous threading anything into the block, so I hand tightened that base mount as far as possible. Then I torqued it to specs. After that, I hand threaded the switch, then torqued to specs and put the wire back on. Then the wheel and done.

_________________
1990 Vanagon Westfalia

[Wildthings]

[gbrady28]

Scratch that on the pressure switch. I realized that being an 85 it only has the one that's easy to access between the pushrod tubes and that's definitely not the culprit. Given that's not it, my guesses are either the blind plug or maybe the crankshaft oil seal but I should know more once I get the dye in there.

The o-ring for the distributor shaft is the right VW part so I'll take it apart again and see if I somehow missed the old one on there.

[dabaron]

dollar to donuts that is the pulley seal leaking. maybe the oil pump cover, but the amount and that is fling around suggest pulley seal to me - the dye will reveal all.
_________________
1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic

[gbrady28]

Ok I figured out that it's definitely the pulley seal leaking. It's a little hard to tell if that's the only spot but it's definitely a main source. I've got the pulley off and I'm having a hard time getting the seal out. Any recommendations? I've tried prying with a screwdriver and it's just tearing the outside edge up but doesn't seem to be moving it at all. It's also tough with the engine in place. When I did the flywheel seal it was hard as a rock and ended up sticking to the inside and I had to carefully scrape little pieces off. I hope that's not the case here because it would be tough to do in place.

[Wildthings]

A "T" shaped seal puller will work if it doesn't puncture the metal of the seal. If so you can get a long combo wrench and bend it near the open end to make an L shaped puller which is fairly broad on the end.

[gbrady28]

I suppose the right tool is usually the best option. I always hesitate to buy a tool when I’m only going to use it once but considering this is the second time I’ve needed it and it’s all of $13 I’ll go pick one up tomorrow.

[Wildthings]

[gbrady28]

Final update and a question on timing.

That seal puller is worth it's weight in gold! Popped right out and got the new one in and buttoned back up (after wrestling with a sheared engine support bolt of course). While I had things apart I decided to get in there and tighten the oil pump cover bolts which were just slightly loose.

Pulled the distributor again and it turns out what I assumed was just a black stripe on the shaft was indeed the old o-ring. Pretty amazing how hard it was but I cut it out and got the new one on. I figured I'd adjust the timing after doing this to get it as perfect as possible and it's the first time I've done that so here's the question.

I've been following instructions I found on the site, using an adjustable light set to 35 and marking the u notch. When I rev the engine the mark starts to move left but then quickly disappears and I can't see it anymore well before I get it to 3000 rpm. At idle the mark aligns with the witness mark and that's about where I had it before I removed it in the beginning. So am I missing something? It runs fairly well with it adjusted to this position but I still want to make sure I've got it right.