Oil leaks 1960 Austin Mini

Started by tsumini, March 01, 2021, 07:36:12 PM

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tsumini

Due to increasing physical limitations I am fast approaching being unable to work on the mini and have decide to try and sell the car. I have no clue what it is worth as I haven't seen any close comps. I am working on a description of features and condition which I hope to have shortly.
Before that I have a concern about the oil drips on the floor after a run. The attached phot shows oil drips after one run where engine was warm and a two-three mile trip. Brown paper acting like blotter paper was slipped under the engine after the run. Only the area shown as differential accumulated oil and only a small amount. The arrows point out the presumption of current leak locations. It appears that the differential may have some leaky seals probably because they were not replaced before engine was installed. Front shows possibly a front cover leak. It was installed when engine was refurbished before current install.
Having heard that the mini engines are notorious for engine oil leaks I would like to get a reading on whether the leaks are serious enough that ought to be fixed prior to sale or sell as is.
One drip was identified as coming from the oil pressure regulator cap and was fixed with the requisite crush washer (thanks MiniDave). Others may be more difficult to identify as most are drops dangling on the gearbox. Engine hasn't run far enough to compute an oil usage but believe to be very low and not really measurable.

MiniDave

I would not worry about that small amount of oil leakage, let the next guy deal with them....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

cstudep

Yeah that seems fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. It would cost far more in time/work to fix it than you would ever get back out of it.

I have a spot under the front cover area on mine after a drive that is a bit bigger than your largest spot and oil loss is pretty much not measurable for the most part. If I drove it more and changed the oil less I might notice I suppose.

John Gervais

Install a sump guard?

Mine leaks more than that, from the front cover, the diff and who knows where else, but thanks to the sump guard, there's only one spot on the floor.
- Pave the Bay -

BruceK

I think that paper helps amplify what little oil is actually leaking.  If you were to pull the dipstick out and add a drop or two to the paper I think in a day or so you'd see a pretty darn big oil stain.  By that I mean that not that much oil is really leaking out - it looks worse than it is.

I agree with Dave it's nothing to worry about.  After all, the Mini was designed the 1950s and cars from that era (as well as 2 or 3 decades later) always dribbled oil.

Anyone remember what roads used to look like in the old days? Running right down the center was a big oil stain from all the cars constantly dropping oil.

1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

94touring

My engine is practically brand new and I get a few drops here and there.  I don't even think about it.  My rx7 leaves a larger array of drops.  The bus transaxle left a puddle, which was rather annoying to clean up.   

mascher

I'll agree with others that the paper amplifies the amount of oil. On a new engine, properly built, the most likely cause of any or all of those drops is the valve cover gasket or accidents when filling the oil. The Mini engine bay is so tight it's always hard to trace oil leaks so you might as well start at the top where access is easiest.
Kelley