valve cover, front cover, and maybe a oil pan leak

[overboosted]

hey guys,

first of all i just wanna say i love this forum, been lurking for awhile, a little over a year im sure, and i have learn alot on here, so thanks for that.

now onto the problem. i bought a 90 240sx hatch from a guy for 800$ canadian.
well when i got it home after driving it about 70 miles, i realized i had no turn signals, on the highway i saw the speedo and tach dont work on the cluster. but all the other gauges work as do the lights. oh and lets not forget the wicked tranny shake, holy crap i thought it was going to drop right onto the highway. but i think the mount might be broke, so ill check into that. also she has avery rust spots along with a snapped pass frame rail right after under the passenger foot well. but thats all besides the problem for roght now i know what i have to do to fix all the above small issues, im starting on them tomorrow when i trailer the car to my dads shop outside of town.

ok so i have an oil leak somewheres, its infront of the vavle cover, down the front of the motor, on the belts, and on the rad support.
now im going to start with that, i wanna know where its coming from.
im thinking i should pull the vavle cover, front cover and check and pull the pan too. he said the pan had a very small leak, he told me he drove it for over a year and 6 month ago it started a small leak of oil, like a liter a month.

now i wanna pull them covers and the pan to check them for damage and cracks, but when i go to put them back on can i use RVT on them or do i need to buy new gaskets?

so anyways, i bored you all with this long story when all i needed to know was if i can use RVT to seal the covers and pan instead of using new nissan gaskets. im sure i can on the pan, maybe the vavle cover, but the front cover im not sure about and i dont wanna F*&^ it up you know.

well thanks for reading and i look forward to your help.

Rob

PS- just incase your thinking it, NO i am not some kid who wants to be a drifter, cuz i am not, i wanna race autocross and roadrace. might grab a open diff and weld it and swap it in for diff days, but thats about it.

[Frenzy13]

Jack the car up and put it on stands, make sure it's secure. Fire up the engine and climb under so you can see the pulley, cover and pan. Wipe everything down and you should be able to see where the oil is leaking from. If it's coming from the front main seal (which I've seen happen notoriously on 240sx) you will need to replace the seal. Also, to pull off all the front timing cover is like a 6 hour job (according to nissan). As for the RTV, I think I remember Nissan telling me to use it because the gasket is irrelevent, but DO NOT quote me on that. Call Nissan and ask them.

[overboosted]

thanks for the reply, i will do that.

im going at it in a few hours, im still at work but im moving the car after that.

then im going to jack her up and wash the front of the motor down so i can see where the oil is leaking from.

the front cover sint going to be a 6 hour job, i dont work by flat rate on my own cars lol, but im sure it will be a mission either way.

well i called nissan and there parts guy didnt know what i was talking about, he had to ask me 5 times what car i had and told me the motor in it doesnt exist, well i called the service manager and he said on the front cover and oil pan rvt would be fine.

the valve cover he said ill be fine with rvt, just to make sure the hose to the intake isnt plugged and ill be fine with that.

so thats the plan, if anyone has any other input on this im glad to listen, even more so if you have cautions or horror storys regrading this.

Thanks for your help guys

Rob

[aNskY]

you need to read the fsm