Oil Issue and Questions
 

So - for starters the car is an 87 turbo.

It seams I "may" have a small engine oil leak somewhere. I say "may" because two mechanics have not noticed it, but the guy changing the oil did think there was a leak. (I know - I should'nt be so lazy and do it myself)

I figured he was wrong, but my oil pressure has seemed to be running a bit low lately. At warm idle I am at about 5 PSI and at high RPMS I run up to about 20. I am running Mobil 1 Synthetic blend and using a K&N filter. Is this pressure accurate??? The manual says 0-20 at idle and 20-40 when driving.

Also, I want to check my oil level but am cursed with one of those blasted round oil dipsticks. I seems to remember a post about a trick to reading those, Anyone have a link?

If there is a leak, I am going to go and get a leak detector kit with dye and black light to try to locate. But, any opinion of stop leak additives for a short term repair? I do not want to cause major damage or catastrophic failure one day.

That pressure is normal for a tired engine... My gf's 88 has 5-7 psi at idle and 25 or so at highway..

they are low pressure high volum systems...and they are not the best systems... they have a oil cooler that will blead off oil back to the oil pan when it gets to hot.. and that in itself lowers the pressure and amunt of oil that gets to the engine parts...

Oil leaks

front seals.. id bet

I assuem you mean front crankshaft seals. Forgive me as this depth of maintenance is new to me. However, this is a new engine with only 40k miles on it. So, I am not sure it is "tired" as of yet. What is the cost of replacing these seals if you know ?

40k miles is not what I would consider a "new" engine... I think your getting close to thinking about timing belt..

(Note: I am not a mechanic... lol.. and not 100% sure of duty cycles on Supras... just learning still :))

It could be your front seal quite easily. I dont think I have put a new engine yet that hasn't had at least one issue.. either due to some monkey doing something funny when building it (all of us are fallable) or a part not being made quite to what spec it should be. My advice is to do 2 things. First.. clean off the engine where you suspect the engine leakes from and secondly, park it on a piece of cardboard. (I mark my tire positions on the cardboard so I can measure how far to the area if I am having trouble finding the exact spot) Bear in mind.. oil travels... and you may have to drive it to get it to leak, so the drip might be from when your driving and its being pushed backwards from the real leak area or travelling along a hose or the motor or what-have-you...

Thats my "amateur" suggestion.

Front cranks seal.... oil pump drive seal.. both cam seals... and then the timing cover could leak... oil pan if it has a cork gasket....rear seal and valve covers.. all the main things that can leak... tend to read alot about front seals leaking and have had to replace in both gf and my supra...

car wash... give it a good bath..buy some of them ramps at k mart cheap.. drive car on ramps clean real good..stay away from the ele stuf but you can pretty much clean the underside real good and not hurt anything.. dont blast the power stearing boots...

if its real oily ...only cleaning then checking for freash oil will pinpoint leak... could be simple like a hose on oil cooler...to something major like seals..

So, the engine was put in with 35k on it, and now has 40k. It had new belts put on when installed so the belts have only 5k on them. They should be fine.

I have now went and scowered over my driveway and see no oil. But, I was about 0.5-.75 quarts low after about 2 months since my last oil change. Now I am also idling at 20 PSI and not 5 or so as before.

It appears that the leak is primarily while driving. Any thoughts?

oil leaks are hard to dignose with out acually looking at it..

there are many many things that can leak besides what i said..
turbo seals can cause oil consumption and not show a leak on drive way...

If you really think its a oil leak and not the engine / turbo USEING oil then you need to clean the bottom of engine.. and then drive and look at were there is fresh oil.. and go from there...

I just got my car back and the valve cover gaskets are leaking (search Oil Pool in the forums to see what the problem becomes). Thats where all my oil was going....

I did the search for you... :)
http://www.toyota-supra.info/forums/...ark-plugs.html

Unbelievable how much oil can fit up there...

I have heard of a product that allows you to add dye to your oil and use a UV light to find the leak. However, I have only seen this for freon leaks. Does this exist for oil leaks ?

Yes, they do have that for oil leaks. You should verify your oil pressure with a trusted mechanical gauge, the one in the car is hardly accurate. 4 psi is the standard oil pressure for idle, and about 10 psi per 1k rpms is considered norm.