Hi,

My 90 244 with approx. 260k miles has been leaking oil at the head gasket area on the exhaust side, on the intake side and at the rear of the engine-it's all over the trans bell housing and is sprayed over the header pipe.

I have to constantly check and add oil even though it only goes on short trips.

The breather box is clear along with the associated flame trap system. The rear cam plug is intact. The valve cover gasket isn't leaking, nor the oil cap seal or front engine seals.

I have researched the archives and I am thinking the head gasket has failed due to age and is seeping oil. It seems to be rare for this type of failure but not out of the question.

There is no mixing of the fluids.

Now my question is would compression test figures point toward gasket failure in this situation?-as it is not the classic all out failure of severe overheating.

I did a compression test (just to check overall condition of engine and hey, I had gotten a new tool!) a while back and the figures were high but within range of one another. At this point when I did the test the oil was on the sides of the block but not nearly as bad as it is now.

Thanks,

Travis