British cars leak oil. That is just a fact of life. Bugeyes are not immune from the typical underside drippings associated with British car ownership. However, when we spot a sizeable puddle underneath one of our Bugeyes, we notice, and we investigate.
In the case of this particular Bugeye, the symptom was excessive dripping present on the front edge of the oil pan and the surrounding underside bodywork. This is indicative of a leak at the front of the engine. Typically, this means that a gasket or seal has failed; the timing cover gasket, the crankshaft seal, and the front oil pan lip seal are all frequent culprits. In fact, this leak looked for all the world like it was originating at the crack shaft seal, but was actually running down from a crack in the vapor canister and dripping from the seal. Glad we caught that!
We often use a dye kit to accurately trace oil leaks, by the way, and we sell those here… they can really help with diagnostics. In this case, our oil detection efforts led up to the area circled below, the seam between the vapor canister and the timing cover. This seam was brazed or soldered from the factory, and over the years, this seam can develop cracks, and this crack will leak oil, and a lot of it. We will repair this crack and put this timing cover back into service, where it will perform better than new!
We solder these to repair these covers, and if you have one that needs repair, call us and we can fix it for you!
