oil leak from pushrod seals - slow or sudden failure?

[hiram6]

Calling engine gurus out there for some advice.

I've got a 1.9L waterboxer with 101K miles. I have at least one pushrod seal on the passenger side head that is leaking oil. Enough that after a 5 hour drive ago a few weeks ago at interstate speeds, I had a fine mist of oil on my back hatch from the drip getting whipped up behind the van. I kept the oil topped up, and replaced less than a 1/2 quart total.

So here's my question. Is this going to stay the same until I fix it, or is there a potential sudden catastrophic failure waiting around the corner? If I keep the oil checked and topped up I should be okay right?

Reason for asking is I'm thinking about an impulse trip down to Cape Canaveral to see the Space Shuttle Discovery launch scheduled for tomorrow night. It's an 8 hour plus drive each way.
_________________
1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[mightyart]

You should be fine to drive it, just keep a closer eye on the level, and take a few extra qts of oil just in case.

[hiram6]

So far, so good, I made it here to Titusville FL, right across the river from the launch site. 800+ miles with less oil leakage than I expected. I went a little slower tham my usual interstate speed, so i wasn't pushing the revs as high as i did on my last trip. Seemed to really cut down on the volume of the leak.

Launch is at 7:30pm EDT tonight, afterwards I'll pack up and get back on the road heading north. Log a few hours tonight, do a little stealth camping fro a few hours sleep, and finish up my trip tomorrow. Checking the oil and topping off as needed, of course.
_________________
1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[tencentlife]

It won't get better, and could get worse, but in any case it's the kind of thing you can live with awhile, as it's not going to go nuclear on you and blow up the engine or anything. Just d what you're doing, keep an eye on it.

Best short-term way to manage it is to lower your top-up level by at least a pint. The top pint or even quart of oil will leak out of there much faster, and as the level falls the rate of leakage will too. Balance that against the minimum oil level needed for the overall safety of the engine, but there's a happy medium in there somewhere. Wbx's will safely run a full quart low and like to blow off the top pint anyway, even when everything's tight.
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[hiram6]

Well crud, wish I had read your post about 30 minutes ago! I added about 3/4 qt to bring it almost up to the upper mark, thinking I was getting it reatdy for the drive back later tonight. What I probably just did is raised the level enough to spray the back of my van with oil during the drive!!

Oh well, lifes not all bad, here I am ready to see the launch tonight. It's about 80, there's a nice breeze, I've got beer, and there are a pair of ospreys in a nest atop a pole about 20 yards from me. Interesting viewing while I wait for the shuttle launch.

_________________
1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[tencentlife]

Well relax and have fun. I'd sure like to watch a launch someday, must be truly awesome. NM is developing a space facility downstate, so maybe someday soon we can just truck on down a few hours and watch that kind of thing here.

I normally keep my wbx oil level in the bottom 1/4 of the distance between the marks. Of course I have effective oil cooling so I never worry about the oil getting too hot and compromising pressure. I find that keeping the level low results in a lot less oil lost thru the PCV system. In your case it should really help with the loss from that leak. Just leave it lower the next time you have to add.
_________________
Shop for unique Vanagon accessories at the Vanistan shop:
https://intrepidoverland.com/vanistan/

Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

Experience is kryptonite to doctrine.

[Wildthings]

You might check your crankcase ventilation system. If it is restricted, you will get excessive case pressure and that will exasperate any leaks. Check that the hose between your breather tower and the S boot has not collapsed or is falling apart internally.

[tencentlife]

The quick check for whether your PCV system is venting adequately is to look at the muffler heatshield right below the top of the dipstick tube. If there is no evidence of oil dribbling onto the heat shield from the tube, then the PCV is working very well.
_________________
Shop for unique Vanagon accessories at the Vanistan shop:
https://intrepidoverland.com/vanistan/

Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

Experience is kryptonite to doctrine.

[hiram6]

Made it back in one piece. The Westy leaked quite a bit for the first two or three hours. Tha back hatch was covered with lots of tiny oil dots. When I stopped for gas, I saw the oil spots, and when I checked the dipstick, it was down to about 1/8 inch above the bottom notch. So I resisted topping it off, and invested $1.25 in the coin car wash to wash off the oil spots.

Now that my oil level was down near the bottom of the range on the dipstick, I drove the rest of the way home with almost NO oil spotting!!

I'l keep my oil level a little lower til I either replace the seals, or, more likely, get into the next Bostig install group.

BTW, the shuttle launch was awesome!!! I know that is the most over-used word of the times, but it was truly AWESOME. You saw, then, after a short time delay, you felt it. Wow.

Course, after about 4 exposures my continuous advance started slipping on my 35mm, so I only got a few pics as it began lifting of the pad, the rest of the roll was trash. In a way, that was a good thing, I took my eye out of the viewfinder and actually watched a spectacular event.

Another btw, as I waited my camper was the subject of many many questions and comments, so much so that I began to wish people would NOT find themselves drawn to it quite so much.
_________________
1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[tencentlife]

I was glad to see they got that big bird off the ground OK. Not many more scheduled flights for the shuttle program; the end of an era is drawing nigh.

About 1/4 up from the lower notch on the stick is where I'm keeping my oil level anymore. Since I decided to keep it at that level, the need to add any has practically disappeared.

Perhaps if I had a functioning breather tower valve the consumption of that top 3/4 quart of oil would disappear, but so long as my breather valve is non-functioning, this lower level works fine. For $80 I'm not that eager to experiment with what difference a new valve would make.
_________________
Shop for unique Vanagon accessories at the Vanistan shop:
https://intrepidoverland.com/vanistan/

Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

Experience is kryptonite to doctrine.