Oil Leak

[Phelan]

Well, I must say that I enjoyed the test drive of the 1990 240sx xe very much. It is a fun little car, and I would really like to purchase it. However I didn't because of a problem I noticed when looking under the hood. The Gasket seemed to be spewing out oil around one of the bolts, enough oil that half of the gasket (which was "just steamcleaned" according to the salesman) was coated in oil. This also caused the engine to smoke quite a bit. How serious of a problem is this? Will it be cheap/relatively easy to fix? The rest of the car is great for being a 90, I would really like to get it, but I couldn't buy it without knowing what was up and I wasn't in a situation where I could take it to a mechanic and have them look at it. Thanks for your time.

[Titan]

Which gasket are you referring to? The valve cover gasket?

If so, then replacing it isn't a big issue at all. You can easily do it yourself.

Now, did you check the oil level to make sure it wasn't low due to the leak? Because who knows how long the engine could have been running on low amounts of oil.

Lastly, when you say the engine was smoking, do you mean it was smoking from under the hood? As in the oil comming out the valve cover gasket being burned by the exhaust manifold or block? Or do you mean it was smoking out the tail pipe?

[misnomer]

I'd assume he means valve cover gasket, that's the only one with visible bolts if memory serves.

That's a cheap and easy fix, you're looking at about a half hour job pulling it off, cleaning it, laying down a new one. If it's this oil that's dripping onto the header, than plug the leak, stop the smokin'. I've had easier things to fix in my life, but they are few and far between :P