Phillip.Weston a question for you please. My st r legnum had the rocker cover gaskets done last year today the mechanic found mo

willz29, Jun 5, 1:16am
My ST-R legnum had the rocker cover gaskets done last year. Today the mechanic found more oil leaking. Using a mirror he confirmed the rocker cover gaskets are tight. The area was also sealed with silicone at the time.

It looks as though the leak may be around the cam cover! I was told the oil can degrade the cambelt, and I should probably have that replaced at the same time. The cambelt was last done at 116K the car has done 165k.

What would an average cost be to do the cambelt, waterpump and tensioners usually get done at the same time from memory. Plus there's another gasket where the oil must be leaking from.

phillip.weston, Jun 5, 2:05am
probably the cam shaft seals are leaking, however it could also be the rocker cover gaskets again if they were cheap nasty brand gasket or if the rocker cover itself is warped (happens when people over-tighten the bolts). The oil filler cap gasket usually leaks too and saturates the area above the exhaust manifold on the front bank. Do you happen to know what side of the engine the leak is coming from!

Cambelt is about $100
Water pump is about $75
Auto tensioner is about $100
Cam seals are about $8 each (need two)
Crank seal is about $8
Large tensioner bearing is about $60
Small tensioner bearing is about $40
Coolant approx $20

Labour should be no more than 4-5 hours to do the job - they aren't a particularly hard engine to do, and being a V6 3 cylinders long they actually have more room than the 4 cylinder models to do the job. I think the hardest part is cracking off the crank pulley and getting the power steering pump out of the way.

willz29, Jun 5, 2:55am
Thanks for all that info. It's leaking on the left side of the engine. You can see oil behind the alternator

phillip.weston, Jun 5, 3:21am
Would be either cam seal, crank seal or rocker cover seal. Could also be a leaking head gasket but not likely on the 6A13.

I would pull off the upper timing belt covers (a handful of 10mm bolts) and shine a torch in under the cam sprocket and check for leakages before going ahead and doing the cambelt again - from what I understand from the first post it was just speculation that the cambelt was covered in oil. Might pay to verify yourself if it actually is.

willz29, Jun 5, 6:54am
Thank you. I will give it a go this weekend

johnf_456, Jun 5, 7:14am
As above remove the cam cover to the best you can, no need to go hard call if its not what you think it is.