Huge Oil Leak/spray

[lemmingzappa 75 1 Cars]

Drove to Chester and back and smoke started pouring from the engine bay, oil had splashed all over the entire engine bay with no sign of where it might be coming from. The smoke was where it was dripping onto the exhaust manifold. So we cleaned it all up, but had to get home so continued.

 

When I got back I took it to a french car specialist and the bloke noticed my dip stick cap had gone missing, and said that the oil could have been from the vapour travelling up the tube and spraying everywhere, so I replaced the dip stick there and then. Cleaned up the engine bay and took it for a drive to see if this had solved the problem, but there are new puddles of oil on top of the engine block, and sprayed all over the tubes in the engine bay.

 

I suspect it needs a rocker cover gasket change, what do you think ?

Is this an easy job for me to tackle at home ?

 

I'm assuming I just need to undo the rocker cover bolts, clean up the surfaces that the new gasket will sit on, fit the gasket and then do up the bolts with a torque wrench (I dont know what settings I need to use for that).

Are any special pastes required when fitting the gasket or does it just go straight on ?

 

I'm pretty sure it's not a head gasket failure as the engine isn't losing any power and there's no smoke coming from the exhaust itself.

 

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

It could be the rocker gaskets leaking, I had to the problem where my crankshaft oil was going on the cambelt side.

The oil sprayed onto the cambelt and aux belt/alternator and oil was everywhere!

[MrG 3]

on an event many years ago we followed a mini that had this issue and it was a combo of the rocker gasket giving way and oil being forced out the dipstick tube at certain erv. At the next stop he realised he hadn't reinstalled the breather system and oil was being blown about and finding its way onto the exhaust whilst on the move. O new rocker cover gasket and reconnecting said breather did it for him.