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Hello All. I have developed a problem of a mysterious fluid leak. The leak occurs whenever I run the car at higher rpms such as on highways at 70-75mph. The leak is either auto trans fluid or engine oil, as it has a definite greasy feel to it. Neither fluid level has dropped significantly enough for me to detect via the dipsticks, but whichever it is is it dripping or being flung onto the lower portion of the exhaust maniflold at the point where it bends back toward the rear of the car just under the firewall. I don't know what the cause of this problem is and when I wipe off the manifold the fluid is fryed and its color is indicernable (just looks like greasy road crap). I don't think that the lleak is sever as the fluid levels hav remained fairly constant, but the smoke that is produced is irritating to say the least. If this is an oil leak I would guess the problem stems from a bad rear main seal and under high rpm use that crank case pressure is built up and forces oil out from that point. ~4000 miles ago I rebuilt the head and at the same time cleaned out the crank case ventilation system which was totally blocked. In milling the head the compression is now somewhere in the area of 11:1 and with the engine being so worn with 337,000 miles on it I am wondering if the extra compression is causeing tons of blow-by which could be causeing the leak. If it is the transmission that is causeing the problem I am at a loss as to what the cause is. I had some work done on the trans, replace the rear main seal, and the shop refilled the trans at that time. I dunno if they possibly over filled it a bit and this is now showing up on the highway. between now and that time the car had not seen much highway use. I would think that it would not take too long before it belched all of the excess out though and this is a percistent problem. On the drive from pittsburgh to D.C. I checked the trans fluid and found it to be a bit high and to have bit of froth clinging to the dipstick. Does anyone know what this is a symptom of? if this is a crank seal issue how much leabor is involved in terms of hours?
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