Hoosier Hurricane (5/15/2011)
You can pretty much rule out the valley pan, it would not produce a steady drip while running, there just isn't that much liquid oil in that area. This suggest a pressure leak, in the areas mentioned by Master Cylinder. Now for an unfunny thought. I have seen leakage of the head gaskets that oiled the sides of the block. Improperly torqued heads, or mixed up head bolts can allow this, especially with shim gaskets. The only oil to the heads are the rocker passages, and pinching off the overflow tubes increases the pressure in those passages. With the shim gaskets, paths are available to allow this oil to migrate to the bottom edges of the heads. Hope I'm wrong with this diagnosis.I have an engine on a test stand that does this. After installing some heads that had been rebuilt, and shim gaskets, oil leaked at the bottom edge on one side. The head on the leaking side hadnt been surfaced. After milling the one head and reinstalling, the leak didnt change. So it will either require CR dropping comp gaskets, or block decking. The head bolts are at 72 and in order.
The oil appears mostly between #6 and 7 cylinders. Part of it drains down the side of block and drops off the top engine mount boss. Another part of it migrates backward along the head/deck seam and comes down in the area of the oil pump.
Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.
