Subaru EJ22 Oil Leak

Photos

I swapped a newer low mileage EJ22 into my 96 Outback about a year and a half ago, and now after 25k miles its leaking enough oil to get all over the exhaust and make it unpleasant to drive again, so I pulled the engine back out to fix it.  I can't figure out where the oil is leaking from in the pictures in the link.  Its the area of the front of the drivers side head, I don't think its the cam pulley seal because there is no oil under the timing cover, it looks to me like its either coming out around the head bolt or from between the head and the part that the cam position sensor mounts to.  I can't see any signs of leaking head gaskets and it was running fine when I was driving it. Any ideas what might have caused this?  Also, are there any Subaru forums where I should ask?  I tried subaruputback.org but it doesn't seem to get much traffic anymore.

The thing to have done would be to degrease it thoroughly and then run it a little to see where it was coming from.

It is probably a cam cover gasket, but don't discount the cam seal.  If someone's replaced it and put a nick in the cam while prying the old one out, the amount of leakage they can generate is incredible.

If it truly was a fast leak, if you're inspecting it while dirty remember that oil doesn't leak up but wind can blow it up a little, and the leak will be where there is an area of wetness but no grime - the fresh oil leaking out washes the road dirt away.

Yeah I should have done that, but I actually didn't notice it was leaking from there. I thought the transmission front seal or rear seal on the engine was leaking, then after the 3rd time I changed the oil the drain plug wouldn't reseal (even with a new washer) on the aftermarket oil pan I had used, so I pulled the engine mainly to replace the oil pan.  It turned out that one oil pan bolt had fallen out (where you couldn't see it with the engine in) so it was leaking there, and I didn't even notice this other leak.  It's for sure not the cam cover gaskets, because all of that is clean and not oily around the sealing surface.  I like those engines otherwise but the amount of oil leaks is miserable, it seems like you have to pull the engine every two or 3 oil changes to find and repair leaks if you don't want it to make a mess and smell like oil constantly.