Hi, i've got an oil leak on my omega 3.0 but, not knowing much about anything i don't know what the bit it's leaking from is or how to stop it. Hopefully someone can help me. Again. Looking down on the engine from the front of the car. There's a rubber hose from the coolant expansion tank to a big fat hose. slightly below that and to the right is a shiny(ish) silver metal pipe running part way along the side of the engine then goes round the front. Anyway, along the side of the engine it branches off (90 degrees) at 2 points and goes into something which might be the manifold (?) Oil is leaking at the point where the furthest bit of pipe goes into what might be the manifold. It looks like some sort of clamp affair makes the join and has about 3 bolts round it. Anybody know what the hell i'm on about, what the bits are and how i stop the oil seeping out of them. I can't really see enough to be able to work it out by studying it. Any help kwould be really appreciated as the oil heats up rapidly and the smoke pouring out the bonnet is rather embarassing as well as worrying. Thanks all

jason123 wrote on 12. Dec 2009 at 12:02:

Hi, i've got an oil leak on my omega 3.0 but, not knowing much about anything i don't know what the bit it's leaking from is or how to stop it. Hopefully someone can help me. Again. Looking down on the engine from the front of the car. There's a rubber hose from the coolant expansion tank to a big fat hose. slightly below that and to the right is a shiny(ish) silver metal pipe running part way along the side of the engine then goes round the front. Anyway, along the side of the engine it branches off (90 degrees) at 2 points and goes into something which might be the manifold (?) Oil is leaking at the point where the furthest bit of pipe goes into what might be the manifold. It looks like some sort of clamp affair makes the join and has about 3 bolts round it. Anybody know what the hell i'm on about, what the bits are and how i stop the oil seeping out of them. I can't really see enough to be able to work it out by studying it. Any help kwould be really appreciated as the oil heats up rapidly and the smoke pouring out the bonnet is rather embarassing as well as worrying. Thanks all

Sure you  are not on about the rocker cover gasket mate :-/

I've just gone and got a haynes manual and found that the pipe i'm on about is the "secondary air injection system connecting pipe", which goes into the right hand (left looking from the front of the car) exhaust manifold at 2 points. The leak looks like it's definitely coming from that area but would oil be in that pipe???

The secondary air injection (SAI) system blows air into the exhaust during warm up to help get the catalytic converters up to temperature. Can't imagine any oil getting into that pipe.

Leaking cam cover gaskets (triggered by blocked crankcase breathers) is a recurring problem on this forum. Chances are that yours is dripping on the exhaust manifold just next to an SAI pipe.

There is masses of useful information in the maintenance guides http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1259003779

Changing cam cover gaskets http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1152564281

Cleaning crankcase breathers http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1152598350

Thanks for that Andy, i'll have a look at that instead then