Does anyone just have engine drips?

[Dave_E]

Hi All,

After 2 months on the hard, we're on our first adventure with the good ship. After a 5 hour run to the San Juans, I have some drips in the catch pan below the motor. Minor amount of anti-freeze as well. I found a drip from the front seal and one from where the number 6 injector goes in. I can find no anti-freeze leak. The Lehman is s year and has 4408 hours on her.

FDo any of you have nuisances drips? (Honesty might count here).

Dave

 

[DavidM]

The oil seal drips are something you are going to have to live with unless you want to do serious work. But a few oil drips from an old Lehman are nothing to be concerned about.


I would do some investigating about the antifreeze leaks. One way is to wrap all cooling system joints with paper towels and go out for a run and look at them for wetness. Then tighten up or reseal the connection.


A better way is to rent or borrow a coolant system testing kit from your local auto parts store. Pressure up the system and carefully check each connection for leaks. There is a dye kit that you can add when shows up with black light for really tough to find leaks.


David

 

[Lou_tribal]

Hi All,

After 2 months on the hard, we're on our first adventure with the good ship. After a 5 hour run to the San Juans, I have some drips in the catch pan below the motor. Minor amount of anti-freeze as well. I found a drip from the front seal and one from where the number 6 injector goes in. I can find no anti-freeze leak. The Lehman is s year and has 4408 hours on her.

FDo any of you have nuisances drips? (Honesty might count here).

Dave

Drip? What drip?
Ok seriously I try to chase drip down but at a point the fix depends on the effort/cost versus impact of the drip.
I have two small drips at the oil pan gasket, to fix this I would need to haul out the engine to reseal, no need to say that it does worth it. A diaper below that I change maybe every 3 months and that is good enough for now.
I guess that at a certain age it is quite common, engine are like us, they drip when getting old lol.

L
L

 

[Trawler Sandpiper]

Could maybe utilize the same diaper.

 

[kchace]

A few small oil drips from a Lehman are not normally a problem. However I would want to fix the injector leak.

Depending on your coolant xpansion setup the coolant leak could be as simple as not enough air space in the on-engine expansion tank (for setups with no remote expansion tank), leaky cap or an inoperative/clogged remote expansion setup. I would certainly want to track down any coolant leak.

Ken

 

[psneeld]

If the drip at the point where the number 6 injecttor pipe enters the block is definitely oil not fuel, sometimes the large nut just needs a little tightening.

 

[Comodave]

A common problem with the coolant leak is the filler neck on the expansion tank. Brian said I could cut the old one out and epoxy a new one in. Have not done it yet though.

 

[Jbear]

I too have a few drips on the absorbents. I guess if it gets more than a few drops per 4-5 hour run I may look into it further. Looks like a rear main possibly and the rear area on the exhaust manifold. Just a couple though.

Glad to hear you are out Dave!

 

[kchace]

A common problem with the coolant leak is the filler neck on the expansion tank. Brian said I could cut the old one out and epoxy a new one in. Have not done it yet though.

I did this on both of mine and it's actually pretty easy

 

[kchace]

I too have a few drips on the absorbents. I guess if it gets more than a few drops per 4-5 hour run I may look into it further. Looks like a rear main possibly and the rear area on the exhaust manifold. Just a couple though.

Glad to hear you are out Dave!

Many of the leaks at the rear are actually from the valve cover gasket and/or the crankcase vent hose from the top of the valve cover to the air inlet. Because of the way the one way valve mounts its very difficult to get a good seal on the pipe coming out of the valve cover.

Ken

 

[Jbear]

Thanks, I’ll check that out.

 

[Mrwesson]

My Perkins drips..

Like an open faucet!

 

[Phil23]

I run Fords find me a Ford that does not have an oil leak and I will be amazed, not as bad as Dirty Perkies (older models) and Commer knockers but they habitually leak.

 

[Simi 60]

Have a few on our 855 Cummins.
Nothing dramatic, a weep meets up to make a drip and that makes several tablespoons a year at most.
Annoying none the less but would cost more to fix than the few cents in oil.

Gearbox is a different issue.
Shaft seal drips onto the shaft and then throws oil out and onto opened up beer cartons and runs back onto a drip tray .
Probably 2 litres a year there but again, oil is cheap and the fix is not (compared to oil)
Gearbox holds 37 litres so its not going to run out in a hurry.

 

[t_ripley]

I bought a black light and engine oil dye to chase down leaks. I also found both diesel and antifreeze show up with black light. So far I’ve changed the valve cover and fuel pump gaskets. Next up are the seals from the injector line into the head.

 

[tallswede]

I have Perkins 4-236s and the rear mains drip a pretty good bit. I may be pulling engines to redo my engine space and pull a leaking fuel tank early next year so I'll replace them then.

Kevin

 

[ctjstr]

drips? well, I did drop close to 4 qts into the bilge on the way back to the boathouse the other day. I suppose you could call it a drip. Maybe a bit more.

 

[AusCan]

drips? well, I did drop close to 4 qts into the bilge on the way back to the boathouse the other day. I suppose you could call it a drip. Maybe a bit more.

oooh - that's a big drip.


Since I replaced the old Volvo, the new Vetus Mitsubishi has been drip free so far. I'm sure now that I've said that, the drips will begin.

 

[markpierce]

I place an oil-absorbent cloth underneath the engine just in case of a leak.