causes of oil on top of valve cover on a GTR?

[jim-san]

A seller of a GTR sent me some pics of his car, one of which is this engine pic.

I haven't seen the car in person yet - it's a four hour drive away - so I'd like to get some opinions on what could be the cause of what looks like oil leaking from the oil filler cap.

Does it look like oil blow-by from a worn cylinder, leaking out the oil cap? (This happened on my Miata. Worn rings on cylinder #4.)

Possibly just someone spilling oil when topping up the oil?

Just a leaky oil filler cap (another thing that happened with my Miata)

Any other possibilities?

I had a '94 323 - non-turbo, of course - and I can't recall ever having anything like this with my 323.

Any thoughts or advice is much appreciated before I take the long drive!

[FE3-323]

to me it looks like just a sloppy fill job that wasn't cleaned up properly

[Wildfire0310]

to me it looks like just a sloppy fill job that wasn't cleaned up properly

Kinda what I was thinking. Looks more like someone cleaned up after missing when filling up. Looks like it just clean in that area rather then oil leaking.

[jim-san]

Kinda what I was thinking. Looks more like someone cleaned up after missing when filling up. Looks like it just clean in that area rather then oil leaking.

Thanks guys. The seller says he had a compression test done 30k km. (18.6k miles) ago. Seller says it was just a spill too.

[Wildfire0310]

Thanks guys. The seller says he had a compression test done 30k km. (18.6k miles) ago. Seller says it was just a spill too.

np, yea the clue for me is that the engine bay is insanely dusty, yet that one area is nice. If it was oil spray it won't be so nice. You would see dots all over the dusty parts. One nice thing about it being so dirty, so make it easy to see any leaks or crap like that. Just look for clean runs in the otherwise dirty bay.

[jay]

I dunno man, that intake manifold looks awful greasy on that side. Could be cam seals, could be cover gasket, could just be sloppy fill job.

[jim-san]

Seller also says the main seal (he didn't say "rear main seal", but that's what I think he means) leaks a bit. Not enough to drip on the garage floor, he says. And not so much if the car is driven more often than he drives it.

Another thing to check out when I go see the car. Should I be really worried about this, or just a bit worried?

[FE3-323]

80% of the time, its not the main seal its the oil pan end seals. its either brittle OEM, or poorly installed aftermarket ones that cause a leak. very rarely is it actually the main seal itself. I actually don't recommend changing the main seal unless you are 300% positive it is the culprit. OEM seals bed a groove into the crankshaft itself, typically aftermarket seals aren't of as high quality as OEM & tend to fail resealing into the worn groove. Just my thoughts.

[Cloud_Strife]

By the way, I have a crack in my valve cover. That just looks like an old, and, bad oil fill.