I am sooo discombobulated. A little light went on, then got brighter, then it was just a matter of finding my quite nice combustable gas leak detector. With engine running and A/C turned on I snaked the long adjustable arm with red LED down past the A/C compressor's pulley, right up near to the shaft. This detector acts just like a geiger counter in that you let it run in clean air with a steady but slow clicking sound, once it detects a gas leak, the clicking increases, a lot if a bad leak.

The unit just kept clicking at the same speed. If oil is getting out, so should the 134. It was about 70 out when I did this and the interior was Very cold when I shut the motor off.

I really cleaned the compressor yesterday, except of course the area behind the pulley. There is a 2" oil spot directly under the center front of the compressor. Oy. I have the lower panel off so I could pinpoint where the leak was coming from.

Prior to this I revisited the left cam cover and short of a few dirty spots, there was no indication of leaking oil, nor was there any on the header cover. Yes, if hot, it would burn it off.

Very few of the cars I work on have A/C, but one that did, when I removed the entire A/C system, a ton of oil came out. Remember the compressor doesn't have its own oil reservoir, the oil goes in the same way the refrigerant does, then circulates through the system. But of course, the oil will eventually stop, as will the compressor if I keep running it. It varies but about 7 ounces of special compressor oil is pretty normal.

I don't think that I'll have anymore aha moments, anyone care to come up with one? Short of just replace the compressor on the basis of hey, it's only money and time.