Ford Zetec oil leak help needed

I bought a 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 with a snapped timing belt and "a head full of bent valves" for $500 last week. I put a new timing belt in it over the weekend and the car runs again.

I also replaced the valve cover gasket, the water pump, and the timing belt pulleys and tensioner.

The problem is that the engine has a huge oil leak in between the block and the exhuast manifold. Oil is leaking onto the catalyst and it is smoking and stinking.

I looked underneath and it appears to be leaking where some kind of tube enters the engine block behind the exhaust manifold. It is not the dipstick tube.

What is this tube called? I have tried searching Alldata and Google for every combination of terms I can think up and am not having any luck.

I know a lot of you tune up Focuses and use the Zetec in Locost cars and other applications so someone must know what I am talking about.

I hit post before I was finished.

This car has an automatic and is no fun. I just want to get it fixed up and sell it ASAP, so thanks for any help/advice.

It is definitely not leaking from the valve cover gasket or the dipstick tube btw.

Sounds like either the PCV valve and/or the breather housing are leaking. Could be due to excessive blow-by from the crankcase. Is the PCV valve still in place? Has it been replaced? I hope this helps.

Tony D New Edge Performance

Yep, Sounds like part of the PCV system. I loaned my Cd with all the diagrams to someone or I would put up some pics.

Tony, Nice to see you finally made it over here.

I replaced the PCV valve. I removed the exhaust manifold the other night and it looked like the source of the leak was the joint between the oil separator can and the block. I put some high temp RTV on the gasket, put it back together and crossed my fingers...

FAIL

I drove the car to work this morning and it was smoking and stinking within a couple of miles from my house.

It was running fine and not dripping or smoking while it was running on jack stands in my garage last night.

Any diagrams you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Also, the car is throwing a code 1131 which is an oxygen sensor lean code which internet reading tells me is probably really a vacuum leak. I have replaced the PCV valve and the PCV elbow that is a sore spot on these cars.

I took the car over to my friend's shop last night and we found the leak.

There is a sensor on the front (exhaust side) of the block kind of below the thermostat housing. It has a a black connector and has a wiring harness wrapped in a kind of nylon cloth going to it.

When revving the engine (increased oil pressure) oil would mist out of the sensor, collect on different parts of the engine, and drip onto the cat.

That does not sound familiar at all un less some one tapped into the head for an oil pressure gauge. Other than the oil seperator for the PCV system all of the oil passages, filter,presure switch are on the back side of the engine. Could this be mistaken for coolant ? I just love all thos bent valves when the timing belt breaks. Good way to pickup a cheap car. The auromatics suck.

Also, there is a bypass tube the runs from the thermost housing to the water punp housing that runs behind the exhaust manifold.

iceracer wrote: That does not sound familiar at all unless some one tapped into the head for an oil pressure gauge. Other than the oil seperator for the PCV system all of the oil passages, filter,presure switch are on the back side of the engine.

Agree, That is a commonly used location for an accessory oil pressure guage. There is a bolt/plug there that goes into the oil gallery and can be replaced with an adaptor for a pressure sensor.

I would suggest tracing the wires attached to it and see where they go.

In reply to ping_2012:

It's a Canoe convention in here this morning.

There is a wiring harness. It has four branches.

One branch leads to the coil pack Another branch leads to the coolant temperature sensor on the thermostat housing The third branch goes to the camshaft position sensor The fourth branch leads to the mystery sensor

I think it is an oil pressure sensor, but the parts counter guy on the phone told me the oil pressure sensor is by the oil filter, which is on the opposite side of the block from the sensor that is leaking.

The leaking sensor is below and to the left of the thermostat housing. It is kind of underneath the exhaust ports for cylinders 3 & 4. It has a black plug and the wiring leading to it is wrapped in a black woven material, not the corrugated plastic that most of the wiring harness is wrapped in.

I'm thinking it is the crank position sensor. I got a new one, just need some time to pull the exhaust manifold (again) and replace the sensor.

The sensor I needed to identify was the crankshaft position sensor. I bought a new one, put it in and the car still leaked.

I asked the previous owner if he had any ideas and he told me the car never leaked oil while he had it. I believe this because his driveway had a really nice custom design in/on it.

The car was also throwing a P1131 oxygen sensor lean code, which the internet tells me usually indicates a vacuum leak.

Alldata referenced an o-ring on the sensor that was not present on the old sensor, the new sensor, or the car I looked at in the junkyard.

So I tore it all apart again and this time I saw a threaded hole in the block with nothing in it. I went to bed last night wondering why that hole was there.

I sat bolt upright at 5:15 this morning when it hit me. The hole where a little peg goes inside the block to hold the crank in place during timing belt replacement. I even have the tool but the internet told me not to use it since the crank pretty much keeps itself in place. A big unplugged hole in the block is probably responsible for my vacuum problem as well.

So I went to the JY this morning and got the plug bolt from another car. Tonight I will put the thing together and hopefully profit.

To add complexity to the situation one of my neighbor's guests back into the car while it was parked on the street on Monday. The damage is minor, but it means a delay in getting this stupid car sold and out of my life.