Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Mysterious oil leak

Hi guys,

I noticed a small oil leak on the right engine mounting plate, right below/behind the tab with the engine number. It is pretty small and nothing drips to the floor, but I cannot trace the source of it... any ideas?

My memories stretched to 18 months since I sold mine but recall a crankshaft sensor in that area that was prone to weeping slightly. Certainly not a major issue for me.

Crankshaft sensor is on the front of crankcase, just visible in the photo near the upper left corner of the voltage regulator.

I would look at the valve cover gasket (dripping down), cylinder head gasket, and cylinder base gasket in that order.

If it remains elusive, time for a bit of florescent dye in the oil...

Check the rear of the cylinder gasket - check the breather system and that you’ve got clear breather pipes - the breather system blocks - crank pressure blows oil out through the lower base gasket. Hey presto - oil everywhere.

Sometimes it just mists out.

It's certainly worth checking for a head gasket leak. I've come across two cars which leaked on the same side that you show in your photo.



Ideally, you would re-torque the head bolts, but in practice the bolts are so tight that they would gave to be removed, cleaned & then re-fitted in order to re torque them correctly. Not wanting to create a bigger job than necessary, I just tweaked each bolt a fraction of a turn tighter. That seemed to do the trick.

Of course, if you have the early type of rocker cover gasket then they are very prone to leaks and should be replaced with the far-superior later, rigid type.