Oil puddling on intake manifold?

Chillin014

Frequent Racer
Mar 9, 2008
313
0
0
HOUSTON TX
Have a brand new built 400 sbc in my car. I have oil puddling under the carburetor on the intake manifold. It's upwards of the valve covers so I dont think that is the source. I will post a picture later but to me it seems like its coming from the carburetor gasket. Has anyone heard of this before? I'm starting to worry there is a piston ring issue.
 

TNTS79

Dragway Regular
Jan 6, 2006
1,252
0
0
Illiniois
Look inside your distributor cap... My 406 had the same issue when i first got it together and in the car. I noticed there was a slight drop in oil pressure at around 4500 rpm... As it turned out my distributor had a worn shaft seal that allowed oil up into the cap which drained out onto the intake and puddled up under the carb. Just one thing u might wanna check out.
 

Phoneguy

Amateur Racer
Nov 18, 2009
284
0
0
Central fl
If it's on the sides of the carb the oil could be wicking up the center intake manifold bolts. Alot of times you need to use thread sealer on the center intake bolts to stop it. If you look those bolts go into the valley and the rest of them don't.
 

bracketchev1221

Dragway Regular
Apr 22, 2009
1,111
1
0
Mountville Pa
Phoneguy said:
If it's on the sides of the carb the oil could be wicking up the center intake manifold bolts. Alot of times you need to use thread sealer on the center intake bolts to stop it. If you look those bolts go into the valley and the rest of them don't.

I had to do this on my 355. I did all the manifold bolts.
 

gman415

Dragway Regular
May 19, 2009
883
0
0
Chattanooga
If the block or heads have been decked, the distributor may be too long and not sealing to the intake. Double the gasket up on the distributor.
Just a thought.
 

grizwald

Top Fueler
Feb 21, 2008
3,300
0
36
Ontario, Canada
funny, i have the same issue on my 408. i couldn't see any indication that the oil was running down from anywhere, but after some serious time spent staring at it, it seems to be coming from the 2nd intake bolt from the firewall on the driver's side. i'm sealing up all the bolts.
 

Chillin014

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Mar 9, 2008
313
0
0
HOUSTON TX
Okay awesome. Those sources both seem probably since I did not seal the intake bolts and my block has also been decked. That's weird that the intake bolts leak though...
 

prairiehotrodder

Pro Stocker
Dec 17, 2005
1,576
4
38
46
Melfort Saskatchewan Canada
I've had the same thing as well on a sbc. Put some thread sealant on the intake bolts did the trick.
brian
 

Chillin014

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Mar 9, 2008
313
0
0
HOUSTON TX
Just as an update, I wasn't running a PCV system on the engine and apparently that was pushing oil out of everywhere. I've got one on there now however.
 

rustyolbu

Frequent Racer
Mar 7, 2010
489
0
0
Phoneguy said:
If it's on the sides of the carb the oil could be wicking up the center intake manifold bolts. Alot of times you need to use thread sealer on the center intake bolts to stop it. If you look those bolts go into the valley and the rest of them don't.

This ^^^^^^^ :mrgreen:
 

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