Antihero's Rampage Across America!!!!

Today we went to Fantastic Caverns, pretty cool place

We have arrived in Hutchinson KS. Rampage ran good although it is leaking oil more than I like, 1qt every 100 miles, I'm considering adding something thicker than 5w30 in the middle of our voyages.

Keep an eye on the oil level and send it.

Indy-Guy said:

Keep an eye on the oil level and send it.

Pretty much what I'm doing lol

It has high oil pressure when it first starts so it's kinda why I'm not just dumping in 20w50 in right away

still leaking out of valve cover or other places too ?

In reply to Antihero :

I've always run 10w30 on my Turbo-Dodges.  Didn't help the leaks, only replacing the old hardened seals and bad hoses tended to fix that.

If you can identify where it is leaking, then perhaps you can stem the tide a bit.

It seems to be leaking from the front of the engine although much much less than it was.

I'll retorque the valve cover again, it's been thru a few heat cycles now

Yes!  

(Assuming you didn't break down there)

In reply to Antihero :

This Is How the West Was Won

Make sure you haven't blown out the seal at the end of the camshaft.

Dead_Sled said:

Yes!  

(Assuming you didn't break down there)

I didn't thankfully lol

It is about a block away from the hotel, and it's a great place to eat

Cooter said:

Make sure you haven't blown out the seal at the end of the camshaft.

I don't *think* it is but frankly oil was everywhere after the first valve cover gasket blew. There isn't much oil at all inside the plastic cover either, but I'll check again

Missed a couple of pages here, traveling myself this week (To Milwaukee, on business) but I'm glad to hear the Rampage is back on.  

To bastardize Led Zeppelin, Rampage On.  

I'm glad there at least haven't been more broken studs! Hopefully re-torqueing the cover will help with the oil. I'm trying to remember what else on the front of the engine could be leaking. The only thing that comes to mind would be to check that the sender for the oil pressure gage's line is snug...

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

I'm glad there at least haven't been more broken studs! Hopefully re-torqueing the cover will help with the oil. I'm trying to remember what else on the front of the engine could be leaking. The only thing that comes to mind would be to check that the sender for the oil pressure gage's line is snug...

The dipstick tube likes to spit oil if there is pressure in the crankcase due to blow by or a non-working PCV system (though you tend to notice the dipstick sitting out of the holder when you open the hood).

The distributor has a seal on the block where it slots in and is driven by the intermediate shaft and turns the oil pump, those get old and dry out.

The oil distribution block at the front of the motor where the pressure switch/sender and oil feed for the turbo, which down and to the right of the distributor.

Camshaft end seals.  They can get old and fail.  Othertimes people put the wrong ones in (they are different for front/back) and they'll stay sealed briefly but then start leaking fairly quickly.

The only other culprit, and its a E36 M3ty one, the head gasket could be leaking as the oil feeds to the head are at the front of the block with the drains at the back.

I would hit the front of the motor with some brake clean to wash down the oil and see if you can find new sources for it later.

The main leak seems to be on the front of the engine, so passenger side and towards the firewall.

I tightened the stud a tiny bit above it and it looks like it stopped leaking on our small voyage to the Cosmosphere....which by the way is berkeleying awesome!

Don’t be afraid to stop by my father’s place to get a good look at the stud situation.  He’s very intelligent and good at digging into problems and figuring out causes of them. 

jfryjfry said:

Don’t be afraid to stop by my father’s place to get a good look at the stud situation.  He’s very intelligent and good at digging into problems and figuring out causes of them. 

 

So far, knock on wood, the studs are holding and haven't loosened at all. FWIW the new studs seemed much more substantial

And thank you for reaching out to your dad, he sent me an email with his contact info

This just in from the Cosmosphere.....

In reply to Antihero :

I'm really enjoying the pics along the way, and happy you're Rampaging on!

Apparently the rampage didn't read that because now I have a no spark situation. Replaced the coil and got nowhere

Antihero said:

Apparently the rampage didn't read that because now I have a no spark situation. Replaced the coil and got nowhere

Cycle the ignition on-off-on three times and count the blinks for the engine light.  That will provide trouble codes for the ECU.

I suspect its the distributor pickup, which is a common failure point.

This website should help with troubleshooting:

http://minimopar.net/

If I owned a Rampage I’d have to name it Randy in honour of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Rampage