engine and drivetrain Oil thru oil cap

[bnam]

I drove my 74Tii this morning when I went for a run (2 miles each way to the trail). About an hour after coming back I went to check the engine oil level when I noticed a trail of oil from the oil cap down on to the cylinder head cover. It hadn't been there the previous night. Never had that happen before in the 6month/2K miles I've had the car.

Is this an indication of something going wrong? Or just a random occurence?

Byas

[SteveK535]

I'm assuming the cap was tight when you discovered this? If it was tight, check the inside of the cap, is there a gasket in there? If not, get a new cap.

[John_in_VA]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

Marshall

From 002 salvage suggets that you take thw cap off wipe the gasket dry then put the cap back on. It seems to give a good seal....it worked for me

Ira

[bnam]

Cap was tight and has gasket. I cleaned it and put it back on. Just puzzled that it happened out of the blue. Was concerned that it was an indicator of head not draining properly. Overthinking it pethaps.

[SteveK535]

Making a new gasket may be your solution, if you don't want to replace the cap. Check the one in there for nicks, cracks, gouges, same goes for the seating surface on the valve cover, make sure that is not burred.

[Mike Self]

over the years, and the rubber gasket tends to compress, allowing oil to escape through the no longer tight seal. You might try this trick:

Take the polyethelene lid from a deli or butter tub and cut a duplicate gasket using the original rubber one as a template. Install your poly gasket onto the oil cap first, followed by the rubber one. See if that tightens things up sufficiently. Tried that trick with my gas cap and not only did it tighten it up, but it made the cap much easier to remove.

cheers

mike

[dpecsok]

i had a similar issue on the touring when i first got it. after being stumped, i looked very closely at the top of the cap and noticed that the was a very very small hole. new cap solved the problem, although i did put a piece of duct tape on there as a temp solution.