possible head gasket oil leak

I have noticed a leak on the top half of my 2.4L. I have done some research on this but have not come to a solution. My mechanic said it was the valve cover and the bolts were hand tight so he tightened them down but I still have the cursed leak. The leak started around the timing belt and has spread all around the head witch leads me to believe it head is bad or gasket and I would like to see if anyone has anything to look into or how to fix this and how sever it is. thank you

also I am new to this forum so thank you in advance

I highly doubt it's the head or the head gasket. You may be better off replacing the valve cover gasket. Even though he tightened the bolts, the gasket could be damaged and causing it to leak still. Just get the Fel-Pro gasket(rockauto.com is pretty cheap) and you should be good. If you have access to a 10mm socket and a ratchet with an extension, you can easily do it yourself.

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the reason I think its the head gasket it because theres no oil on the head, just under the head.

Our 2.4 8gs are notorious of having a valve cover gasket leak. Can you take a picture of the place it's leaking from and post it? If you're having a head gasket leak, you would see other symptoms also, not just oil on the outside.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g8...psfbj75iu3.jpg
there are all the locations I can see where it leaking
the only other symptom I see in this car is bad gas milage (13 mpg)

Get a compression tester kit from your local parts store and check compression, they rent them for free. If you have good compression, it's not the head gasket. But keep in mind that gravity forces any fluid leaked downward, so regardless of where it comes from, the oil goes to the bottom. You could have a few issues combining to get you 13mpg, but the telltale sign of a bad head gasket is a loss in power and economy. I would look into the compression test and go from there.
That being said, if you have a blown head gasket, it would be cheaper to swap engines than to properly change a head gasket. If it's in your skill set, I have a nice engine for sale. :)

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I have only has this car for 2 years now as my first car. it has always gotten 13 mpg, I have been trying to figure that out since Ive had it. what are all possible issues and solutions.
I am all about trial and error so if you or anyone has an idea I'm open to try different things.
more specs of the car- its a 2003 2.4L es with 159,256 miles on it currently. and I drive less that 250 miles a week (if it helps).

pics of engine and car if any of this helps
http://s53.photobucket.com/user/Just...brary/my%20car

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Originally Posted by justin13

I have only has this car for 2 years now as my first car. it has always gotten 13 mpg, I have been trying to figure that out since Ive had it. what are all possible issues and solutions.
I am all about trial and error so if you or anyone has an idea I'm open to try different things.
more specs of the car- its a 2003 2.4L es with 159,256 miles on it currently. and I drive less that 250 miles a week (if it helps).

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Honestly I have never seen one of these cars do that badly. My V6 car in its prime got 19mpg city and about 25mpg hwy. If you're doing that poorly and it's been drivable for that long, I'd lean more towards a fuel leak somewhere.
Does the car accelerate smoothly? If it bogs down with throttle you could have a stuck injector or something, but giving you "all" of the possible causes is impossible. There's literally hundreds of things on these cars that can go wrong, and the dumbest combination usually ends up being the case. Process of elimination gets really expensive really fast on cars, so it isn't the way to go without some sort of direction. So let's follow up with a few questions.

1.) Do you smell gas at any time in the car, whether it's driving down the road, parking, or filling up the fuel tank?
Because, if so, there's most likely a fuel leak somewhere, and that would explain your poor fuel economy, and isolate your oil leak to what is most likely a valve cover gasket or cam seal.

2.) Assuming the car is not manual swapped, does it shift properly through all gears? You should be able to notice it shift from first to second, second to third, and then from third into overdrive (a total of three shifts). Turn your radio off and accelerate from a dead stop, and count the shifts. If there's less than three, you've got an issue there. If it's been going on for this long, you would most likely need a new trans. If you don't hear it shift at all, it's probably in limp mode and is only running in third gear.

3.) Is your compression okay? This is the big point in all of this, because of your assumption that the head gasket is the culprit. I've never seen a car make it two years on a blown head gasket without some kind of repair done to it, but Mitsubishis are strange cars and I don't put anything past them. Like I said, rent a tester, they charge you for it at the parts store and when you return it they give you your money back. If you've never done it, get a friend, and follow the instructions with the tool in the box.

Follow up with replies for at least the first two, and work on #3, and we'll try to help as much as we can.



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1. i do not smell gas at all only when filling it.
2.it is still the original trans and ive had it up to 90 mph before so it shifts fine. i may not drive alot but i do take it out on the highway

i have had others say the ecu is covering for an error somewhere with in but i was unsuccessful on finding where.
the valve cover on this car is clean all the way around the leak (i believe to be oil at this time) is below the exhaust and and intake
i drive to college every Tuesday and Thursday so it runs fine.

Does it throw any codes?

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no codes, but I don't know if this maters for this topic but "overheat" is the wrong word. the temp gauge goes up but never higher than the 3/4 mark on the gas gauge (I use the gas gauge for an eyeball estimate) it only rises when you do 70-85-ish on the highway and slow down to 65 or less never anytime else

update: have my own code reader so if you need any info let me know

That sounds like a low coolant level or a faulty cooling fan, to me. If you had a bad head gasket I don't think you'd be running that smoothly. It could also just be your coolant temp sensor going funny.

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I always have thought about changing the thermostat out
both fans work and I had a coolant leak but it was just a loose clamp

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Originally Posted by justin13

I always have thought about changing the thermostat out

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Are you losing coolant?
I mean a thermostat isn't a bad place to start, they're easy to change and cheap. But if you aren't losing coolant, chances are it's not that. Normally when they fail, they don't open all the way and the pressure sends coolant back through the overflow tank.

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I had a small leak but it was just a loose clamp thats all
other than the "oil" leak this engine is clean

I have a video of it running but I can't upload it

update: got it
http://s53.photobucket.com/user/Just.../car%20running

Sounds like a 4G engine with lifter tick to me. Looks like it runs okay though. However I would still start with compression and go from there. Otherwise I really don't know. Unless you are just running pig rich.

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It very well could be rich for some reason un know to me. if this is the case how should I go about reseting what ever is making it run rich

well my car has a rubber head gasket or reusable when i got it all it needed where the bolts tightened to fix the leak on mine but it still leaks near the belts but so far it hasn't leaked enough to say i need to fix it but try a reusable head gasket and don't hand tighten actually get it tight

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Originally Posted by redliptus

well my car has a rubber head gasket or reusable when i got it all it needed where the bolts tightened to fix the leak on mine but it still leaks near the belts but so far it hasn't leaked enough to say i need to fix it but try a reusable head gasket and don't hand tighten actually get it tight

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Rubber head gasket? No. They have a thin sheet of metal in them. I think you may be thinking of your valve cover gasket, which you should no over tighten as it will warp your valve covers and keep the leak going.

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Don't worry too much about the temperature gauge going up to 3/4 on an off. It will come down when the fans kick in right? It doesn't stay that way all the time. This seems to be an issue in a lot of the 4cyl 8gs. There's a thread which has discussed this by it self, and I've changed everything (thermostat, radiator fan, both sensors, relay, etc - except the PCM).

https://www.thegalantcenter.org/show...on-(explained)

Over 100K miles with this issue, and still running. I've replaced my head gasket also, and this problem still persists, so I doubt your head gasket issue is related. Did you check for the oil leak from timing belt perspective? Could it be the leaking from the timing cover? You can take it off and check.

cool thank you im planing on changing the thermostat and valve cover (gasket) out when it warms up. I have not removed the timing belt cover how hard is it to remove with out messing up the timing.

the reason I ask all this is because this car http://s53.photobucket.com/user/Just...brary/my%20car was a rental and had 2 previous owners and an accident on the passenger side (new fender and door) and has one key for the door and one for the ignition (no key fob when I bought it I added it ) and has the signs like it was stolen at one time so who knows what was done and what may have happened to this poor car (now its in great care)