engine top front oil leak question

When driving for a prolonged time, especially at highway speeds, I have oil leaking from what appears to be somewhere in the front upper region of the engine. When you open the hood, the front inner part of the hood is oily; it looks fan-blown, but I am not sure if the oil seeps out somewhere in the fan area and gets blown back or if it sprays up (from the oil filler cap?) and then gets messed up by the air stream from the fan. It eventualy seeps out where the bolts are that hold the hood brace in place; the bolt heads on the outside of the hood get oily.

Also, the short coolant hose on the passenger side is always very oily (probably same reason; oil been blown back from the fan).

It drives me nuts; the leak is not much in volume it appears. In the region I suspect there is not much stuff that carries oil. I have steamed down the (otherwise clean) engine several times and tried to locate the leak. Nothing detecable at idle, even at higher rpm. Looks bone dry. Once on the road and under load it seems to accumulate.

When I got the truck and stopped at westfolk's place, we re-tightened the valve covers and that seemed to have helped. I am just not sure that is what it is.

Any suggestions? Can the oil filler cap be a culprit? It does get oily up there but I do not know if it is just oil dripping from the hood.

Probably a head gasket. The upper end is oiled via oil rifles, one at the front of the block, and the other at the rear. If the engine has old style gaskets, there is no seal ring, permaseal, no nuthin' around the oil passages. The MO of leaking head gaskets is what you are seeing, or, a leak at the rear that sometimes gets people thinking they have a rear main leaking. Easy way to tell if the gaskets are new or old style is to look at the block/head joint on the exhaust side. If the gasket is flush with the edge of the block and head, they are old. If the gasket looks like it's missing and there is a gap at the joint, it has new style gaskets.

the old gasket also has a projection at each cyl for the vent groove. pretty easy to see it must stick out 1/4". but i agree head gasket leak, they all seem to ooze until replaced.

PS magazine has an article describing that and advising that (modest to moderate) leakage is not a concern. Big leaks however are a concern. If the guys above me are right (they usually are) then that leak will appear to be nowhere, until it's all over the place, just as you describe.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I had hoped that it would not point to the head gasket. Oh, well.
No oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil, just a little mess. Maybe I get a little more time out of it. It is parked for the winter anyway.
It is easy to get a little discouraged, though. I'd like to drive and enjoy my truck for a change, not constantly engage in serious repair work.

Try taking the fan off and running it for a while. You should be fine in the winter - or probably even the summer in Canada. I took the fan off one of my trucks over a year ago to see how it would work on the road. It does well as long as I don't Idle in traffic for a long time. With no fan it should be alot easier to spot your oil leak.

cattlerepairman said:

No oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil, just a little mess. Maybe I get a little more time out of it. It is parked for the winter anyway.
It is easy to get a little discouraged, though. I'd like to drive and enjoy my truck for a change, not constantly engage in serious repair work.

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You will start to see a bit of oil in the radiator eventually. Just start lookin' for parts now and enjoy the ride for a bit 'till the oil gets so bad you can't stand it or you start to see oil in the cooling system. Then it is a good time to clean it all out when you do the top end.