As all good DSMs do, mine leaks. It's leak of choice is oil, mainly around the front of the motor. I took some pics and have some ideas but others I'm just stumped. If you have a suggestion, please chime in. The motor was recently rebuilt and all gaskets replaced.

Here you see my exhaust manifold, which is somehow damp with oil. Don't ask me how, I don't know.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/data/501/47408IMG_0339.JPG

And here you can see a small, thin layer of oil making its way down the side of the motor. It doesn't look all that significant, but it still shows up. It starts near the valve cover and goes all the way down to the oil pan. The valve cover gasket and oil cap gasket are new.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/data/501/47408IMG_0338.JPG

Here you can see a drip off the oil cooler and near the oil pressure sending unit. and strangely, my brothers upper half. I plan on replacing the clamps there. The hose is brand new. Everything that is shiny or looks a little darker than others has a thin layer of oil on it.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/data/501/47408IMG_0337.JPG

Please help if you have any ideas.

although I can't help you with the leaks, I can suggest that your brother gets a haircut.

Yea, well, I've told him I won't consider him part of the family until he gets a hair cut. Kids today....

good. Next thing you know he'll be playing frisbee and going to Millikin if you don't keep him in check.

well i feel your pain. i also have many oil leaks at undisclosed locals. but the valve cover will always leak. reason being, take a look at an older motor, for example a chevy 350 (due to its popularity and common knowledge). now look at the valve covers. yes, lots of bolts over a small area. the spacing for the bolts are significantly smaller than that of your dsm. hence there requires more pressure per bolt in the dsm application. and since we all tighten these suspect bolts so carefully and just "snug" due to their reputation of stripping it never seals 100%.
as far as the manifold goes i would relate that to either the valve cover or the oil dip blowing up.

now for the cooler, i havent a clue. but they all seem to have that same small drip that leak just enough to pit an oil stain the size of a dime on the driveway.

As for the first couple of photos: that's hardly anything to be worried about. The last one could be the seal on that hose or that inverted hex shaped bolt. How much are you losing a week? if it takes a month or two to drop less than a quart, I wouldn't worry about it. I have seen and experienced WAY worse.

I realize it's not that much, but if I let it sit for about a month (give or take) it leaks almost exactly a quart. The oil pump has been rebuilt, the whole engine just got new seals, but I know that the cooler has just been washed and spray painted silver. I wouldn't be so worried about it if it didn't loose so much oil being a new motor and leave a puddle a little bigger than a frisbee after sitting for a month. I've already eliminated two leaks (turbo oil drain, heater core coolant line) so far and I'd really like to finish it off and have a car that doesn't leak.

I'm more concerned that the little bit dripping down the side of the motor is actually accumulating at the bottom and making a big puddle on the ground.

On a side note, I think some of the oil loss may be coming out the exhaust side of the turbo. I let it idle to warm and then gave it a good push on the go pedal twice. When I got out of the car there was a spatter of oil that had shot out of the exhaust.

BTW, the dipstick does not pop no matter how hard you drive it since the rebuilt motor.

I don't mean to hi-jack this thread in any way, but I have a very similar problem. Only, my oil sits atop the volver cover and mostly resides around the words "16 Valve" Anybody have clue why it would sit there? It can amas to quite a bit if I don't clean it reguraly.

As for the oil on the exhaust manifold... The studs (top row) actually block off oil passages in the head. I don't mean they are in the way, but the stud holes mee the oil passages. The oil around that stud is 90% likely to be oil seepage from behind the stud, due to old loc-tite or the complete lack thereof.

If you could make it out to KOU on a Friday or Sunday, I'd be happy to look at the others. Or you could come to my house. Keep me posted.

Well....the car isn't exactly legal nor is it mobile. The trans is completely broken and there is no insurance or registration on it. It currently resides in my garage atop jack stands. I had a feeling the oil seepage might be from those oil passages but wasn't sure. I don't believe that loc-tite was used on those studs when assembling the motor so, I'll try that first.

BTW, dstock, there are several things that could contribute to your oil leak problem.

rotten valve cover gasket
rotten oil cap gasket
or, the seals around the bolts in the valve cover not sealing very well

I had problems with the last one. Best fix is to take the bolts out one at a time, clean them off with some brake cleaner and try to get as much oil out of the hole as possible. Then lube the bolt up with high temp RTV and stick it back in. Should dry up your oil leak problems.

I would hope its not the valve cover gasket since it is new, but it could be either the oil cap gasket or bolts. I try and figure out which it is. Thanks.

Definitely try a new oil fill cap, I replaced mine and it got rid of the oil leaks on the top of the engine.

I still have a few leaks like turbohcar's on the bottom end though...

You don't have to get a whole new cap though. You can buy the cap gasket seperate from the cap itself. It actually allows for a better seal if you use the old cap and place the new gasket over top the old one. The gasket itself is under two bucks from the Mitsubishi dealer if I remember right.

Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing...I'm sure that a correctly manufactured cylinder head will not leak oil from the exhaust manifold stud holes. I have seen many people running their ex-man with studs missing all together due to the aluminum head being striped out. I've personally never seen oil from these stud holes.

As far as the oil cap...I doubled my cap gasket with one new one on top of the old gasket and it helped clean up the valve cover.

Well, for whatever reason, when priming my motor on the engine stand oil started seeping out of one of the middle stud holes of the exhaust manifold. We ended up sticking an exhaust stud in there and no more leak. I never thought it would leak out around the stud though.

I'm currently trying to get ahold of a stud remover to take the studs out and lube them up with some Loc-tite I bought today. I started taking them out today and only the nut comes off. Isn't it always the case when you try to just get the nut off the whole stud comes with it and then when you try to get the whole stud out just the nut comes off?!? This car is testing my patience, but I will win! MUahahaha

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176345

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread...xhaust+manifold

Evidently, it's a common problem.

Wish Autozone would have told me that...I would have just got the gasket!

That's interesting...I've never seen it locally. We even drilled out about 3-4 broken studs on Spys FWD at SloPny and never drilled through to the oil passage if I remember correctly .

I concur. One of my upper manifold holes is actually held in by a bolt that isn't bottomed out against the chamfer. I don't see any oil from this hole.

I could see the manifold holes being near an oil passage and drilling too far into an oil passage, but for them to actually meet the oil passage from the factory would be a nasty engineering snafu.

I've replaced all the studs on my head twice and have never seen any oil. What year is your head, Brett?

It should be a '90. That's what year the donor was out of. I'm currently on the search for someone with a stud remover (looks like a socket, slips over the stud and has teeth that expand and grab the stud to turn it without making any marks).

or you could just double nut them out.

I think a couple of my studs are leaking oil, but it's too filthy to pinpoint the problem just now.

Tried double nutting last night. Twice in a row is just too much for me.

Those stud removers do work good, but you should plan on getting a new set of studs if your really going to have to crank on them. The tool (Snap-On is what I used) reall gouged the threads of the studs.

I've personally had experience with just the MAC ones. It never tore up the threads but I don't have access to it anymore. New studs and nuts are on their way anyhow.

I've had enough, it's time to get down and dirty.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/showphoto...&cat=501&page=1

Here it is halfway done. The Illinois game started and I decided I've had enough for tonight. I will finish up tomorrow by taking the exhaust manifold off completely and removing the studs from there. The best way I've figured out to remove them is heat and vice grips.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/showphoto...&cat=501&page=1

BTW, which way do they go in? Short thread end into the head or long (more) thread end into the head? I never knew and just guessed last time. I would assume more thread end into the head.

short end (with the course thread) goes to the head.

The bottom center exhaust stud on the two DSMs I've owned went right into the oil feed gallery for the head.

Well, everything is back on complete with new gaskets, studs, and nuts straight from Mitsu. My only problem being the very last stud that bolts the turbo to the manifold. I stripped the end of the stud. If anyone has a good unused one from a junk turbo along with the nut I would gratefully buy it off of them. I even tapped the manifold for an EGT gauge, so now I'm just waiting to borrow the Mapp gas torch again and get at it with the vice grips and channel-locks.

After this is complete, I'm tackling the transmission. I tried to do everything in order so that I don't have to deal with tracing more than one problem after I put the tranny in. I bought a brand new clutch fork with the gaskets and studs and as soon as I get the trans out I'll be going to Michigan to pickup the flywheel as well as buying a new slave cylinder. Somewhere in this mix I have to find money to buy new 17" tires for it along with lug nuts and then a new catylitic converter for the parts truck. It should be a fun time.