Major oil leak

[Turbodog97]

Hey guys and gals(I know this isn't my area of the forum but my friend at work is having car trouble). He is dropping about 1/4 a quart of oil every 10-15 mins or so...I cleaned everything up(which he had waited 2 weeks to let me know about this problem ) and checked for where the leaks were primarily comming out. It seems like it was mostly comming from the tranny itself at the bottom through the small drain hole that's there. The clutch is somewhat soft also so I'm assuming that his tranny must be flooded with oil. He was recently in a head on collision so I'm assuming these two are related. Anybody ever have an issue like this before? Could it be possible the block cracked and is pushing the oil out? Thanks for any help/replys!!

P.S. It's a sohc D16 engine Vtech.



Chris

[superbluecivicsi]

your losing oil in the tranny or engine?

if its not coming from the tranny or oil pan or anything higher, then you may have a leak in your main seal. the clutch feeling funny maybe because their is oil on the flywheel.

check the easy stuff first, just to make sure.

[honda_luvr_2000]

Originally Posted by superbluecivicsi

if its not coming from the tranny or oil pan or anything higher, then you may have a leak in your main seal. the clutch feeling funny maybe because their is oil on the flywheel.

agreed.

if it's coming out the small drain hole between the tranny and engine, and there is no sign of a leak above the tranny on the engine (headgasket, dizzy, valve cover) then it is deffinitely the rear main seal. and yes the clutch is soaked in oil. it's only a matter of time before it doesn't grip anymore, so when u replace the rear main seal u'r gonna have to do the clutch too. make sure u clean the hell out of the flywheel or u'll ruin the new clutch too.
another thing to check on, since he is losing oil at such a fast pace, the head might be getting starved of oil. there might be sum damage up top due to the rear main bad leak. check for scoring on the cam lobes and the cam journals. if the top is "wet" w/ oil then it's prolly alright, but if it seems dry or baked then it's prolly toast. hopefully it's just a rear main seal and clutch replacement, and nothing more.

[Turbodog97]

Well he doesn't know too much about cars so when he brought it to me it had no oil and was smoking. The bottom of the dipstick even started to burn. So what type of job is in replacing that rear main seal? I already checked the head itself and it seemed pretty lubed up. I don't have all the tools to help drop the tranny and replace the seal so I suggested a "Honda guy" that I know that loves to work on those cars. Would it be a bunch of money for him to do it or would it be more worth just for him to get a new car. He has a 92 with 165000 miles and front end demolished...I just suggested new car time. Would that be more cost effective? Thanks again for all the help!

[superbluecivicsi]

SOHCs are easy and cheap to come by. do a compression test with a leakdown to see if you crapped the motor. if its fine drop the tranny. if its not fine, find an sohc swap. maybe even a dohc swap