lo206 oil leak

N

NAPA28

New member
Anyone seen A oil leak come from the front fill cap before? Ive tried swapping the front and back ones to no avail. It looks flat. Not a big leak, but annoying. Just curious.
 
crack? post about block leak details use of talcum powder to check blue straight line chalk might work good as well
 
Ive got oil dye at home. It works the best. Ive only used the motor on the track 3 times so far. I was hoping someone would say they seen theres do it just to make me feel better.;) I Just gotta get it off the kart to look is all. So far Im loving this motor!
 
Normally you don't have to remove the front yellow oil fill cap.
So get the oil out of the engine and clean all the oil from that area.
Apply pipe sealant or silicone sealer to the threads and re-install it.
Let it cure and put oil back in.
Set the engine or kart on an angle so the oil covers the plug and check to make sure you fixed the problem.
 
Interesting follow up to this, Yes there is some coming out of the yellow fill cap but not enought to leave a puddle. The leak is from the oil drain plug. must be that orange sealant on there. Im going to knock it off and use teflon pipe sealant on it when I change the oil. could be the plug is out of round a little. Had a flat head years ago with same problem off of A tiller.
 
Sometimes people have a tendency to over-tighten the oil drain plug, leading to a crack in block. We'll hope it's a simple fix.
 
Drain the oil and clean thoroughly with brake clean. Inspect closely (especially the underside of the block) for any cracks. You might also consider replacing it with a rare earth magnetic drain plug. I have a few in stock. :)

--
Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cuts
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
Celebrating 25 years of service to the karting industry
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
 
Dan is right on with over tightening the drain plug.
The plug has 1/4" pipe threads.
Just like an ax or splitting mall, pipe threads are tapered.
That means if tighten the plug too tight you can split the block.
I had a customer that cracked 2 blocks before he learned not to tighten it too tight.

When i get one that's really tight i put a 7/16" 12 point box wrench on the plug and set the motor on the floor.
I stand on the top of the motor with one foot and put my other foot on the wrench.
Transfer my weight to the wrench and Jimbo it comes right off.
 
When i get one that's really tight i put a 7/16" 12 point box wrench on the plug and set the motor on the floor.
I stand on the top of the motor with one foot and put my other foot on the wrench.
Transfer my weight to the wrench and Jimbo it comes right off
Click to expand...

Ive never seen anyone tighten NPT threads that much on A go kart. :eek: Ive seen plenty of inexperienced users of a NPT TAP go to deep before though.
 
Getting the over tight drain plugs out is easy compared to some of the button head screws people use for the chain guards.
I hate those things!!
 
^ You got that right!

I've welded my share of old worn out 3/16" allen wrenches to those button head chain guard bolts over the years to get them out.

A good left hand drill bits work well most of the time.

I've got a BIG pair of vice grips for the oil drain plugs that guys over-tighten. Problem is many times, that they drain the oil at the end while the engine is warm, and re-tighten the drain plug (while the block is still warm.) It's easy to over-tighten pipe thread especially when there is a concern for their "baby" having the drain plug come lose and losing oil during a race.

Side story: The drain plug on the bottom of the dry sump oil tank on our sprint car engines uses straight thread and an o-ring. Little more than fingers tight is all it gets. One good friend of ours would always safety wire that plug after replacing it (every night at the track that he was with us.) I guess he considered a $40,000 engine should have a little more security to it. :) It never bothered me, you just had a feel for what was tight "enough." :)
 
The thing always killed me is when I take a company vehicle to one of those quick oil change places and they use an impact wrench to take out the plug and put it back in. Just further emphasizes why to do your own maintenance on your personal vehicle.
 
How about the guys that over tighten the carb bolts to the intake manifold and bend the heck out of the carb flange?
Especially on restrictor plate motors.
 
My block cracked at the drain plug. I cleaned that area and flushed the engine with thinner and then had it tig welded on the outside/underneath. I now install a brass plug in each engine that has it's own removable plug. That way I never have to remove the plug from the block again. The block is very thin in the area of the plug when you turn the engine over to see how they cast the bottom side.
 
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