the following is the story of my newest problem with the El Camino (which i'm thinking of naming Pamela, after a crazy gf i had, she was fun, but man, she had problems)
i'm really getting tired of this crap...

ok, i'm planning on taking leave on the 23rd to go visit my friends and family back home, not too mention that it is my sister's HS graduation on the 29th, and i was planning on driving the El
well, tonight i woke up, went to work to check on how my leave status is doing (too long of a story to relate now, too pissed) then went out to snag some grub, and wander around the area, try to find some interesting places, well, as i'm coming back to base along route 5, i notice that in the rear-view mirror, there seems to be an extraordinary amount of smoke billowing out behind me, and when i pulled up to the gate and showed the gate-guard my ID, i noticed a strange sound coming from under the hood, so i get to the dorm, pull in, kill the engine and pop the hood, then i proceed to look around the engine compartment...
first thing i noticed "hmm, there seems to be an inordinate amount of oil coating everything" second thing i noticed was "$@&^%$!!!!!!! THERE'S A ****LOAD OF OIL ON THE GROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" puddle of approx. 1.5 feet in diameter actually.........

........ so, no driving down to Tallahassee (which among other things, means no fire-works, and no Smithfield BBQ for the folks), so now i'm looking for a flight, and the prices will kill me.......
or maybe not, if i can get a hold of this deal:
http://www.usair.com/about/press/nw_03_0421.htm

now the only thing i really gotta concentrate on is how bad mom wants to keep it (i think that as soon as i give it back to her she'll sell it) and whether or not i should invest in a whole engine rebuild, or just (depending on the prob) new gaskets....

the thing that gets me is that i wasn't really pushing the car like i usually do... was actually 10 MPH under the speed limit instead of my usual 10 over
been told that it might be the sending unit, the oil is on the front passenger side of the engine, it's too coated with oil for me to check right now though, sound like a likely culprit to anyone?

the oily Elky in question is the one in my sig

It may be as simple as a loose valve cover gasket. The smoke billowing out may have been the oil burning on the exhaust manifold and Y-pipe. Clean it up, fill it up with oil, and run the engine. If it's as big a leak as you say, the source should be pretty obvious.

:mrgreen:

Man that really stinks. I thought that you were going to replace the engine with a V8 or am I thinking about someone else? Sounds like a good time would be now if you are.

Chevy, Ford, Dodge, doesn't matter they all have issues and old ones have more issues than new ones. Sounds like a leak that should be pretty easy to identify in the day light. I am not familiar enough with the V6's to give advise but it is possibly something basic and pretty easy to fix or it sounds like it should be. I would guess that the Timing Chain has got too much slack and has been rubbing on the cover until it has worn a hole in it. It would be on the pass side of the engine and in front and because of the oil flow I can see it leaking that bad.

I had a V8 350 do the same thing to me on a Pickup once. Drove me nutz trying to figure out where it was leaking from. I finally ran my hand along the bottom of the Timing Chain Cover and it sliced open a finger. The chain had rubbed until therre were fine and very sharp slivers of cover sticking just out far enough to catch on my finger.

Several hours later a new timing gear, chain and cover and I was good to go.

well, that's one problem solved...
the leak is from the front crank seal, the cause of that leaking is (i want to say the harmonic balancer, but i haven't ever seen one like that...) a ring around the crank, behind the pulleys (it looks like a balancer that has had all of the rubber disappear from the middle, leaving a loose ring around the crank, and the inner part of the balancer bolted on) is loose, and it causes enough vibration to damage the seal
so, that's the bad news, but, the good news is that now if mom decides to keep it (and if she doesn't i'm buying the damn thing, it's named now, there is no turning back, even if the name is inspired off of a hellishly confusing, but fun, human-being), i've got a source for a pretty dad-gum nice engine
met a guy that builds engines, and races for a living, has a high 8-sec '63 Volvo, he's trying to build up a customer base, so he builds the engines with something like half-time labor costs, pretty nice.....

oh yeah, and it was me that was thinking about tossing a V8 in the El, like i said, if/when mom gets rid of it or gives me permission........
MUWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ricers beware!

A stock replacement Damper is only about 50 or 60 bucks. I suggest a new one if that one is damaged. Don't get one off a used car.

I have seen the rubber go bad before, just recently rebuilt a 350 and it had a bad vibration dampner also, the rubber was coming out. Invest in a new one, or you may wind up replacing a used one again. Some times it can be damaged just by pulling it off, especially if it's an older one, the rubber just gets old and weak.

i will be replacing it and the oil pan gaskets/seals it damaged sometime after i get back from leave
i'm planning on checking the torque specs as well, just to be sure that everything underneath is doing good
anyone have any suggestions for other things to do while i'm down there?
thanks for the help as well!!
evan