Oil leak/explosion

[eurospec]

I went drifting yesterday and had an explosion of oil cover the front of my engine bay. Is there a common place they leak/spray from? I was bashing the limiter quite a lot yesterday which i've never done before and wondered if that would attribute to it?
I've cleaned it all up and it seems to have stopped leaking/spraying now.
It looks like its come out from the front of the rocker cover area around the VVT sprocket area, but its hard to tell as it goes all the way down the front of the block, and all over the left and right hand side of the engine bay, looks like its come out at quite high pressure, or been sprayed around by the viscous fan.
I was thinking maybe getting blow-by when on boost and the breathers cant keep up with the volume of air, and its blowing the pressure out the rocker gasket or somthing? I'll have to do a compression check in the week.

[dave_sr20]

Have you checked the rocker cover breather make sure its clear

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[eurospec]

Yep, checked the breathers on the exhaust side of the engine today and all are clear. Bit oily but no blockages.

[dave_sr20]

So is it coming from the rocker cover gasket or from the timing cover? Would try resealing the gaskets if that's the case.... I don't think being on the limiter would do it unless you have over revved it i sing mine off the limiter all the time and shes oil tight

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[eurospec]

I don't know where it's from, hence why I asked if there was a common area they leak from. It's just suddenly happened, never had any leaks before, and certainly nothing this bad. Its all over the front of the engine, rocker cover/timing cover/alternator/throttle body etc.

[sideways14a]

Not blew the turbo line have you? Would be odd to get it all over the alternator side but with a strong fan blowing and fine mist i suppose it could happen.

[stacky]

Have you checked the dip stick?

Even if it wasn't the dip stick that popped, it still mite be a case that you have high crank case pressure - so mite be a good idea to do a compression check for worn rings.

[mark_clio2]

Sounds like fried piston rings, best do a comp test and let us know the results

[eurospec]

Yeh that is my thinking. Rings are nackered and its pressurising crankcase. My initial thoughts were dipstick but seems ok, hasnt come unseated. There isnt much oil at all on the exhaust side of the engine at all, most of it is around the throttlebody/altenator area.

Ill do a compression test in the week, if its low ill try do a leakdown test too.

[sprint]

Crank seal would be well worth checking, generally sprays oil all over the place off the pulley, covers the front of the engine, inner wings etc and isn't that easy to spot. Best bet is to make sure everything is clean below the pulley with carb cleaner etc let it get hot and see if there's any signs of oil dripping. Remember a tiny leak looks awful once it's sprayed everywhere, so you won't nessecarily see oil pouring out, just drops of it.

[jumpbike]

my dipstick now has a fat spring holding it in after something similar and I also beefed up the breather line to the catch can

[eurospec]

Did a compression check this evening with the engine warm. Got a consistent 170psi across all 4 cylinders +/- 5psi. This seems pretty high to me, I was expecting more around 140-150psi. Is my compression tester broken or is it possible to get compression this high on an internally standard SR20DET? I was reading about doing tests with the throttle-body open, is this necessary?

[dave_sr20]

To get the right readings do the test one cylinder at a time with all the plugs in the ignition system disabled and throttle wide open while cranking for a couple of seconds till the gauges evens out

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[eurospec]

Yeh thats what I did, but I didn't have the throttle open. How does this have an effect on the compression readings anyway?

[dave_sr20]

Having the throttle open will get the maximum air into the cylinders so you get the highest reading you can and consistent eliminating any throttle position changes on crank

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