'88 350 TPI Crazy Fast Oil Leak!
 

I just replaced my intake gaskets on my TPI in the Silverado this week. I did everything right, even with the spray gasket, and the RTV instead of those stupid cork things. Everything went fine until I tried to start it up after refilling the anti-freeze. Oil is spraying from the lower side of the engine onto the crank pulley/balancer or belt, and flinging all over the place. Oil is also dripping quickly from the weep hole on the trans bell dust cover. I can sort of guess that the oil from the dust cover is the rear main seal. But what about the front? And why did this happen all the sudden?? It was perfectly fine when I parked it to do the intake gaskets. It drains the oil now in just over a minute, and I'm to afraid to start it to see where its coming from. It doesn't appear to be leaking anti-freeze either.

A little background on the engine. It was rebuilt professionally years ago and then used to haul a boat and thats it. Was originally made to be supercharged. It sat for 13 years until about 2 years ago when I restored the truck. It has an Eagle Products forged rotating assembly, crane solid cam and lifters, trick flow alum head and roller rockers, high cap oil pump, new dizzy and TPI intake. Things I have replaced over time since restoration: valve cover gaskets, distributor cap, spark plugs and wires, oil filter, all intake gaskets.

Anything at all might be helpful!!

Definitely sounds like the main crank seals just blew out ... no clue if anything concerning an intake gasket would cause a sudden blow out though ...

Very difficult to diagnose something this vage. It could be almost anything.
As NullHead said, It couldn't be anything related to the intake gasket.

Try degreasing it and with a perfectly clean engine, Start it up to see the source of the leak

I had this happen to a Ford a couple of times. How long did the truck sit during the changing of the gasket, and how cold was it when you tried starting the truck back up?

The truck sat for just about a week due to my "friend" being an ass. And it was about 40-50 degrees out when I tried to start it. It's been warming up here for a while now.

That't strange...

The one time on the Ford, it blew both of them out about four time. I finally got a gauge and measured the oil pressure (It always showed high on the gauge in the dash...this was when I first bought the truck), and it was putting out about 180 PSI of oil pressure, and was just blowing the seals out because all the pressure had to go somewhere. The problem was that the truck had the wrong push rods in the engine, witch I really doubt if the problem on your truck.

Now I have had several trucks break one or both seals, if they sit for a few weeks in extream cold (Like 40-50 below), and then trying to start them with out warming up the oil, again, i doubt that was your problem.

You have me stumped. Is there anyway that the truck could be putting out too much oil pressure because you got some RTV silicone on a vent or something?

Two things I'd check.
1-oil pressure sender by the distributor, maybe cracked the fitting when setting the intake.(rear leak)
2-oil cooler lines, they have been know to blow off(front leak)

RustyFordLover ~ The oil pressure is a possibility. I never knew if the gauge in the dash was correct, but it has ALWAYS read max when ever the engine was running, even at idle. As far as the RTV, the only place i put the stuff was on the 2 lifter valley walls for the intake. I've seen plenty of people do that.

Diesel Dan ~ I checked the sender. I remember unplugging the thing and not being able to find the plug again. But there is no oil coming from the top of the engine on the back side, nor the front. And where do the cooler lines go towards the front of the engine? Are they the metal ones that branch off the filter adapter?

I really appreciate your input guys. Solving this will save a $15,000 engine! lol

Yes, cooler lines go from the adapter to the radiator.
Also the rear leak could be from the cam plug on the back of the block above the rear main. I have never seen a rear main blow out. Pull the inspection cover and watch it while running. With the leak this bad it will be easy to see where it is coming from. Just have someone start/stop while your looking.

Yea, my truck was maxed out on the gauge when I got it as well, after a "professional" rebuild (the engine was in the truck when I bought it). Once I put the right push rods in it, it worked great, and never gave me another problem.

The plugs on the backside are a possibility I didn't think of. I'll post here what I find. Been to cold around here all the sudden to be doing much. Appreciate the advise

Where is "here"?

Here would be Oakland MD. Where the weather is bi-polar. 50F one day, and 20F the next. It's aggravating. I checked the plugs on the back.... or rather I confirmed that I can't actually see them without taking the engine out. So even though I can't really afford it, I have opted to pull the engine and find all the problems. Hopefully nothing else is going to be going bad after this.

So the oil was coming from the rear of the engine from under the inspection cover?

Nice thing is those engines can be out in around an hour or so.

Just ting this all up. I know it is belated, but it's an odd occurrence. I have since rebuilt this engine completely as what happened fried the cam, and ALL bearings in the short time it was running in this condition. I had taken the TPI intake off to paint and polish it. During that time, the fuel lines remained loose over the lifter valley. I had forgotten about them. Normally this wouldn't be a cause for concern. But my fuel tank does NOT release built up pressure. (i dont know why) This caused gas to splurge out into the lifter valley, and consequently, into my oil. That in turn caused the oil to reduce its viscosity, and spew out of both the main seals. It was a dumb mistake on my part. The oil should have been replaced anyway, but at the time i was short on cash. I got a new job shortly after and rebuilt the engine. Thankfully, Crane Cams keeps ALL their cam specs from any year they made a custom work. Got my cam, lifters, push rods, bearings and now it purrs. I thank anyone who tried to help!

Wow !!! Who would have thought... Thanks for coming back to update your thread.
Don't be a stranger

Oooohhhh .... I would have guessed you would have just pushed the lines off to the side or disconnected them before removing the intake. Which would mean that the fuel would have just ran off the intake and down the engine, or evaporated before you got the intake off.

Interesting. So your fuel lines were leaking fuel into the lifter valley for a good week before you started it up? That'll do it ...

Wow, what a thread! As I was reading it, I was reminded of instances where people mix solvent-type into sealing-type coolant, causing otherwise "sealed" leaks to dissolve and suddenly start hemorraging. In a way, that seems to be what happened, just with your oil.

Glad to hear you're engine is where you want it to be!