Oil leaks on 98 leSabre--where from?

[imidazol97]

I get oil coming down the oil pan. It hangs on the bolts. I also get oil that seems to go to the front of the engine, the compressor, on the passenger side.

Is this all from the gasket on the oil pan at 190,000 miles? Or is there somewhere higher on the engine that can leak oil?

I've gone around the valve cover edges with paper towels to try to find a place where there's wet oil seeping down.

I did run synthetic in it for one oil change 15-20 K ago. I think it started doing more dripping on the driveway after that.

I hate to change the oil pan gasket if there are other places the oil is coming from and it won't stop it.

How do I find the source?

[gmtech1]

Intake, valve covers, headgasket (although not likley), timing cover, crank seal. These can all leak oil down like that. Oil pans were bad for leaking on these. If you want to, you can clean and dry the areas and apply a leak trace powder around the areas and look for you leaks. At 190k, there is probably more than one.

[Tech II]

In addition to what GMtech1 said, one thing that will leak a lot of oil and run down to the oil pan, is the Oil pressure sending unit, located just above the oil filter........

The valve covers, like the lower intake in the four corners, are known to seep.....Oil pan gaskets do leak, due to the irregularities in the flange of the pan.....whenever you do an oil pan gasket, you clean the block and the flange of the pan(if you look at the top of the flange of the pan, you will see ripples or irregularities).....first time I saw this, I ordered a new pan.....the new one looked the same...called TAC, and was told a TSB would soon be out(of course, this was years ago)......you take the new gasket and you RTV the top and bottom of it before installing, to help seal those "ripples".....