Oil Leak Help

[Corey Bowcutt]

I got my freshly rebuilt engine back about three weeks ago.  Got the car all put back together.  I took the car out for a 10 minute test drive around the neighborhood and came home with no issues.  A few days later took it to fill up with gas, was driving about 20 minutes and no issue.  Saturday took it to a local car show so drove it a total of probably 45 minutes including some highway speeds and no issues.  Sunday I took it to a very large show on the eastern shore that was a good hour away.  The trip home was hot and was in bumper to bumper traffic for half of the ride home.  The car ran cool as a cucumber but when I got home a had a significant oil puddle under the car.

I put the car on the lift an found engine oil weeping out of every seam and opening in the bell housing and a spray of oil on the bottom of the car.  So this is no small leak.  I also looked at the block generally and the valve covers specifically and the block is bone dry.

I would like opinions on source of leak.  The two that have been mentioned is of course the rear main seal and the other being the flywheel bolts.  Given the nature of this leak (not there for three rides and then appearing) and the quantity of the leak would that point to one over the other?

Are there any other possible leak points between the block and the bell housing?

Thank you,

Corey

[shelbydoug]

There are allen socket plugs for the cam galleries at the rear of the engine.

There may be some plugged with freeze plugs just glued in.

Those are under the flywheel so if you have evidence there is an oil leak in the bellhouse vicinity and you don't see the back of the intake dripping, then you need to look there.

[sg66]

I forget if the 289 and 302 blocks have the rear oil pan bolt holes machined the same but at least on a 289 the rear holes are a through hole and not a blind hole. If there is no sealant on those bolts and they back out, I've seen them leak and cause a similar mess and also make people think their rear main seal is shot.

[Greg]

Check the oil pan bolts, if they are tight (not overnight as that is bad as well) then with that much oil you will have to pull the trans to find the source.  My guess, rear main seal. 

[Royce Peterson]

Valve cover gaskets or intake manifolds leak and present themselves exactly as you describe. Make sure it's not one of those sources.