I've seen a front cover gasket leak in the same manner as you show in the pic. It was leaking at teh very top, then running down the front cover, behind the timing thingies (forget what they're called at the moment). But, before you start ripping things apart, check the oil feed banjo bolt, on top of the driver's side of the front iron.



If you get a 1/4in drive swivel 10mm socket, you do not have to drop the subframe/raise the engine etc at all. Just take out the bolts on the oil pan that are screwing into the front cover and leave the oil pan on the motor.



Also, you will need a 23mm wrench, (or a crecent wrench), to take off the banjo bolt that holds the oil cooler line to the front cover. Also take off the oil metering lines at the pump, (don't lose the crush washers), unplug the oil metering pump, and take it off with the front cover. You'll also have to take off the oil return line from the turbos that drains into the front cover.



All in all, it's not that hard. But, I think 8hrs is a more accurate guess than 4 for the average guy.



Edit: I would seriously look into buying/renting an electric impact gun with the highest torque rating you can find. The front bolt is always a pain to get off manually. I've broken a breaker bar.

 

You need to remove more stuff and make sure its not running down from some other place...

 

OMP or one of the lines? I don't think they typically change those out on remans, do they?

 

if it is leaking EXACTLY where you marked in yellow and nowhere else, then it is the front main seal. It can be replaced without taking *very* much apart. Get your hands on a FSM and it will tell you how to do it.

 

Actually, I don't see how a bad front main seal could cause a leak in that manner.

 

For the record, I wrote that reply from work and the picture was blocked. I thought we were talking about the other side

 

because that is the only thing in THAT area that can leak EXCEPT the o-ring. If the o-ring was bad... you'd have low oil pressure also. If the front cover gasket was leaking in THAT area, it would leak behind the flange that the AC and PS mount to... that same flange that the CAS is on. Unless the oil is running down from the top of the cover (which he didn't mark in his pic) that leaves the front main seal.

 

After further review, I still don't see how a bad front main seal could leak in that manner.







But anyway, lets's just wait and see what the leak turns out to be. I've been wrong numerous times before.

 

turns out it is the front cover gasket that is leaking oil from the top...the seal is seperated at the top for some reason...its a 30k miles reman so i don't get it but its in the shop for 1k getting fixed up, i tried to do it myself but i was afraid to go anyfurther than removing p/s and a/c pulleys as i didnt think the leak was actually from the front cover

 

Good to hear that you found the source. 1k for that kind of work is reasonable.. I guess?