Thread: Synthetic oil leaking

I now have 2000 miles on my re-build sr20. I've been using castrol 10w40 for the break-in period and have not had any oil leaking issue's. I started using Mobil 1 10w30 and now I have oil leaking around the valve cover, oil drain for the turbo, lower oil pan, and oil distbutor.

I will fix as many leaks as I can but my question is, is this normal? Should I just switch back to non-synthetic oil? Any type of sealant I should use? I normally use Hondabond or Toyota Sealant. I hear The right stuff from permatex is good for synthetic oil is good.

Don't know if this is the same problem/fix, but... I remember reading that if you went from one oil to another, say, from regular full synthetic to a different oil that was for high mileage engines, and then back to the full synthetic... you could get leaks.

The high mileage oil synthetics have additives that help swell the seals to prevent leakage and the resulting mess and problems. But, going back to the regular full syn(like Mobile 1), the seals will eventually shrink again, but now you will have some micro gaps... hence, you will start to have leaks.

In other words, once you start using the high mileage grade oil, you're pretty much stuck with it... at least in an older engine.

Don't know if that's what you've done here, but...

Mark

Normally you only will develop leaks from using a "mostly" PAO based oil, which the new Mobil 1 isn't really.

Could just be coincidental, or it could be that you cleaned out some sludge in the motor that was preventing leaks. Could be improper pcv ventilation as well. Who knows?

those leaks didnt all happen yesterday . when puttin new gasket welladvised to scrape old excess gasket with razor before puttin on any other sealant

I have heard that the synthetic oil that caused leaks was the earlier syn oil that considerably different now. That the syn of today isn't going to cause any leaks as they are now made from the same dino oil.

My experiences would point me in the direction of the RTV. The application of the RTV and the quality of the RTV. Sometimes the stuff has sat on the shelf too long, sometimes it hasn't set properly (ie the wait time to tack, prep of the surfaces, ambient temperature/humidity...). It could be that the RTV is getting eaten by fuel in the oil(maybe the motor is running rich). It could be just the formula in the RTV just sucks (Permatex)

thank for the info guys. I am going to try and fix as many of the leaks as I can and go from their.