1996 Subaru Oil Leak?

Does anyone have any idea where this oil leak might be coming from?  It's a 96 Legacy Outback and the pictures are looking up from underneath at the transmission and exhaust.  I think that it's leaking from the seam between the halves of the transmission case next to the drain plug, but if that's the case I don't know if it's fixable because all of the transmissions I can find seem to have oil in the same place.  I can take the transmission out again and replace it with another one (I even have one more extra but it looks like it leaked worse than this one does), but this is the 3rd one I have put in that either leaks too badly or the second gear syncro is bad (or both).

The car has very high miles on it but the transmission is from a different car that had a lot less miles on it. It does leak far less than it used to after I fixed all the oil leaks on the engine that I could, but it's still spraying so much oil onto the cat that it makes me feel sick to drive it for too long unless I leave the windows down. It would be nice if there was some easier fix than I am missing rather than taking apart the transmission and trying to get the halves of the case to seal better.  Maybe a JDM transmission with lower mileage would be better?

I know the real answer is to just buy a new car and not try to keep using a 26 year old Subaru, but also this isn't the best time to buy a replacement car and that's really the only thing making a replacement car an urgent issue vs something that could take a year or two and not be a big deal.  I have put 5k miles on the car since the beginning of May and there aren't really any other major problems with it.  I do have money and a space to park another car, but I haven't found anything that wasn't either overpriced junk or a worse deal than just buying a brand new car.  I do have one other car but I don't really know how to put it back together and it's not really a useful car anyway.

Probably this.

That oil separator plate ddavidv mentioned was plastic for some years and warps.  Subaru had a kit with a metal plate and some new mounting screws as an upgrade. It works well. 

It's a Subaru, I'd be more concerned if it wasn't leaking oil

-A former Subaru owner.

How many quarts per 1000 miles?  All old engines leak oil.  The decision to fix is based upon the quantity.

I don't really have to add more than a quart of oil between changes.  It's difficult to tell once it's cooked on the exhaust but I honestly think it's gear oil.  I can't tell for sure though. 

That engine had ~98k miles when I put it in, and I changed the oil separator plate (replaced with the metal one), the o ring on the smaller plate also visible in that picture, the cam seals and o rings except for the one seal that requires removing the cam, a new oil pan, removed and resealed the oil pump and replaced the front seal, new valve cover gaskets, and I believe that's it. The only potential places to leak oil that I didn't change were the rear main seal and one cam seal.  That was enough to make it go from billowing clouds of oil smoke to actually stop leaking for a while. 

When I pulled the old engine out it still had the original transmission with like 400k on it that was totally worn out, so I replaced it with a used one with 180k which didn't leak, but the second gear was so bad that it shifted about the same whether or not you used the clutch and had chunks of metal in the oil when I finally took it out.  When I took it apart again to change the transmission the engine still showed no signs of leaks, and I put another transmission in that had about 260k that shifted fine, but it leaked in the same place this one appears to (from the seam next to the drain plug). 

Once the amount of smoke blowing in the dash vents got to the point I couldn't stand it, I swapped this current transmission in (from a car with 180k miles) and again checked the engine for leaks while it was out and didn't see any, but now it's back to leaking as bad or worse than it was before I took it apart the last time.

I don't really have to add oil or gear oil regularly, but it just smells too bad to keep using like this.  If it is in fact the transmission, it appears to be that good transmissions will be the limiting factor in keeping this car on the road and I need a different car.  I have another engine with under 90k miles and lots of other parts and there isn't anything else really wrong with the car, but finding a 25 year old transmission with under 180k miles probably isn't going to happen.  I know I will need to get a newer car at some point soon anyway because used parts are getting harder to find and Subaru has discontinued a lot of the parts for these in the last few years, but I can't really work on a car much newer than this one myself and cars that are new enough to not need work are $$$$$ right now if you can even find what you are looking for at all.

In reply to Tk8398 :

I do apologize.  I really didn't do a very good job of reading your original post.  I do hope you find a solution.  Good luck!

Build a little tray that diverts oil from dripping onto the exhaust pipe.

Aspen said:

Build a little tray that diverts oil from dripping onto the exhaust pipe.

The downside of clamshell style transmissions is that they flex and warp and eventually will leak, assuming that said flexing and warping does not lead to trans death first, because clamshell designs are the weakest setup.

The best I can tell is that it leaks from the seam next to the trans drain plug in the middle of this picture.  I mainly posted this because I was hoping I was missing something that would be easier to fix.  If that's in fact what it is, there is no real way to fix it permanently.  There's no particular issue with space or money to keep this car around until I'm 100% sure I am done working on it, but finding a replacement right now is far from ideal.