oil leak

[32 VALVES]

I just bought this 81 caddy and drove it home 150 miles doing about 70 - 75 mph.  It ran sweet, but it was hot as hell, anyways I steamed off the engine the other day because it was all ***ty looking.  And the next day I noticed oil seeping between the head and the block.  Can I snug the head down some more or do I have to put a head gasket on... :?:

[Rat407]

How many miles are on the caddy? I would change the head gasket, flush the  cooling system, install a new water pump and thermostat and replace the timing belt as well as the other belts.  That is if none of this has been done and there are high miles on the engine.  No one likes to pull the head but as many times as I had to do it, it really isn't all that bad and I have a turbo.

[chrissev]

I just bought this 81 caddy and drove it home 150 miles doing about 70 - 75 mph.  It ran sweet, but it was hot as hell, anyways I steamed off the engine the other day because it was all ***ty looking.  And the next day I noticed oil seeping between the head and the block.  Can I snug the head down some more or do I have to put a head gasket on... :?:

you can try tightening the head bolts.  Some people have told me this works when you get the oil leak down the front of the block like that.  It didn't work for me on my 79 rabbit and I ended up replacing the gasket.  Guess it depends how far things have progressed.  I once looked at a golf to buy and it had oil coming out the entire front of the head gasket and it still ran fine.  Usually this only happens to high km engines and it is a sign that you might need to just rebuild the thing.  I tend to avoid diesels with head gasket oil leaks because of this.