THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Our new to us 1971 710M has an engine oil leak on the bottom of the rear cylinder. It's clean up top on the valve cover. Any idea what's going on here?

Did you take the valve cover off? You may need a new gasket. Pretty simple fix, just make sure you don't put it on upside down.

Just for piece of mind as I think you're a new owner - this is minor.

audiocontr wrote:Did you take the valve cover off? You may need a new gasket. Pretty simple fix, just make sure you don't put it on upside down.

Just for piece of mind as I think you're a new owner - this is minor.

Thank you very much! I feel better knowing that as you can imagine.

We haven't touched anything. You're saying a new valve cover gasket? I can see fresh oil at the bottom of the gasket.

I'll order a new gasket, I imagine SAV has them.

From past experience with other old vehicles, trying to stop a leak by tightening the cover usually just makes the leak worse. Since I haven't touched it, do you think I should see if it will snug up a little?

+1 on the gasket. If you rub your finger under the valve cover you should be able to come up with some oil.

stiffler4444 wrote:+1 on the gasket. If you rub your finger under the valve cover you should be able to come up with some oil.

Yes, I can see it.

Do I need to drain some oil before replacing the gasket?

From notes from a previous Owner it might have Mobil 1 in it which I understand is a no-no. What oil do you recommend. Nevada here 115F-20F ambient temperature range.

Never hurts to give it a tightening. Odds are you should replace it (all 4 actually). No need to drain oil, but know that some will leak out once the cover is removed. I use 10w30 but I'm in Canada.

To Dave

Tighten the nut a little. Wont hurt

Don`t tighten the nut ... the cilinderheadcover will break ... it is specified to 15 Nm which is 10.8 lbf ft (which is what you use?)

The seals are sucked in quite often, when the cork gets older ... it can be prevented by glueing the seal to the cap by a temperature resistant liquid sealant (we here in Europe use Curil T, I am sure there is something similar in the US!)http://www.elring.de/fileadmin/Dateiabl ... _EN_01.pdf

Simon

I did tighten the nut just a hair, it was tight. New gaskets ordered from SAV. Thanks for the tip on the sealant. In my old days we used a Permatex High Tack, maybe good to use?

it might have Mobil 1 in it which I understand is a no-no.

(speaking of engine oil)

I do not recall ever having anyone in this forum say that synthetic oil is a problem in the Pinz engine; I can't see that it would be a problem. It is costly, and it may have issues with leaks and seals, but those are other issues that don't have any relationship to damage in the engine. I have heard that synthetic gear oils in the hubs can ruin brake shoes if the seals leak (apparently the synthetic can't be as cleaned from the shoes as non-synthetic oils) but I have not been able to find any reason why this may be so. The one truth that I have been able to find is that GL5 rated oils will cause a problem with the syncros in the transmission, so a GL4 rated gear oil is preferred only in the transmission.

Yup, it's been discussed, Jim L in fact has pointed out that our Pinz engine is
designed to have a "small" degree of oil flow past the valve guides. This will
result in Synthetic oil burning in the chamber leaving a really crappy residue
build up. That stuck in my head as a don't do ever.

There are a ton of hits searching for synthetic oil so would take time to find.
Maybe others can chime in if they also remember or can point to that thread.

Here it is, read this thread: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7836&hilit=synthetic+oil

Fouls the plugs, and build up.

I sure appreciate all the responses, great forum here! I'm not a novice having done all my maintenance and many repairs and upgrades on my Early Broncos for over 15 years. But, the Pinz is foreign and new to us so we need to start our database on it from nothing! Luckily we did get the 3 manuals and wiring diagram from the previous Owner and SAV's data base with diagrams is awesome. And we did find a maintenance list online.