'92 oil leak

[Doc308]

I just noticed an oil leak in the vacinity of rear of my engine ( above the cat). Smoke rises from that area ( and it smells like oil burning) when i rev the engine, but seems to stop while idling. I should note that the car is off the road for the winter and I start her up and let her thoroughly warm up about once a week. Given this, it's idled a lot ,but no evindence of oil leaking/burning unless I give the engine a few good revs. This seems to imply that pressure is causing the oil to flow past some seal/gasket.

I've seen a number of posts re: leaky vtec solenoids/spool valves . Is my leak in the vacinity of where they are located? Can you tell me exactly where thse solenoids are located and what they do. I've read that replacing the gaskets is not complicated so I'd like to try it myself if that's where the leak is.

 

[Doc308]

One thing i forgot to mention. Given the very cold temps where I live, i put 5w30 synthetic in the car for the winter. Could this be more prone to leak than the usual 10w30. If I replace w 10w30 again could the leak stop again?

 

[mikeh]

It's probably your driver side rear bank cam seal (farthest from center). Atleast with my car, with the vtec solenoid was leaking it would only happen when VTEC was actually engaged. But, my cam seal leaks before that and drops oil just where you describe. I'm changing mine out this afternoon..

-mike

 

[docjohn]

Cam seal leaking is common,I doubt the slight viscosity change you made has anything to do with it.