Oil Leak in 1983 Diesel Vanagon

[rcarlson]

I drive a 1983 Diesel Vanagon. It has a slow oil leak pictured below. I removed the plastic cap and found a small nut which I tried to tighten. It is on there pretty tight, so I thought maybe there is a rubber gasket or something that needs to be replaced. So I started to loosen it, but noticed that the bolt begins to rotate with the nut. At that point, I realized I had no idea what I was dealing with so I tightened it back on. Does anyone who has dealt with this part of the engine before have any pointers for me?

Thanks,

Richard

PS. Disregard the fuel leak on the glow-plug. That's fixed.

[Quantum-man]

Looks to me like it's a slight leak coming from the oil filler cap. An almost natural thing to happen IMO

[82vdub]

To me, the piece on top of the valve cover doesn't look like it's leaking much oil. If there's oil on the manifold, it could be coming from the valve cover to head gasket. That's a common leak. But the top pic it doesn't look like much of a leak (not saying that it isn't leaking either).

[tawney]

So, it's leaking around the bolt that holds the valve cover on? I'm not familiar with that valve cover, but it wouldn't hurt to completely remove the nut, even if the stud comes with it; you'll be able to see if there's an O ring there or not. In either case it should just bolt right back up. There's an obvious difference between the plastic/rubber gasket around that center bolt compared to the two others; maybe that's the cause?

I would also mention that it's not unusual to have some oil dripping out of the valve cover vent line that is going into the air filter box right above that bolt; are you sure that's not the source of the oil?

[rcarlson]

Thanks for the encouragement to take off the valve cover. That's a new one on me. Anyway, I removed it and it looks like there is a small tear were the belt meets the cover that may be causing the leak. I've cleaned it up a bit and am going to keep an eye on it. If that is the main leak, I think I'll order another cover.

The nut was also leaking, but it is very small. I've tightened it and will keep an eye on it, too.

Richard

[caveman]

Hey you have the same setup as me , a 1.9 na. Those valve covers actually have 7 seals in all. One that goes all around between the cover and head ,then 3 under and 3 on top of the cover where those 3 studs come through. Whether you replace the big seal or not, apply some RTV silicone where the seal touches the head where the 2 half circles are- you'll understand when you have it all apart. Only thing is that it may sound like the threads of one of the studs may have pulled out and may need to be resecured, either by heli-coil or JB weld. Remove your air filter cover and take the cover off, it should be an easy fix. because of the angle of the engine they leak at that spot fairly easily.

[Fatmobile]

I'm going to move this over to the vanagon diesel fora.