I was out in the garage switching out intakes for the pain in the a$$ CA smog check (registration is due) and noticed that I'm leaking oil out of the engine block (?). I'm not sure how bad the leak is but my low oil light hasn't come on yet and I don't see any smoke when I start the car, but it looks substantial.

Has anyone else seen a leak like this?

 

sure looks like valve cover, the small cover on top of valve cover leaking to me
very common problem and easy fix with a tube of high temp rtv
do a search on leaking valve covers , lots of info here

 

You have something there that will need attention. But you would be surprised that such a small leak can look bad.

If you can't get to the repair for a while, double check to make the sure all the bolts are still tight and not coming loose.

James

 

Yea that's not your block, rather it's the top piece of the 2 piece valve covers. Like James mentioned check the tightness of the bolts but you will want to eventually take it off and reseal them.

 

This may be a great opportunity to replace them with a teflon coated set from NW. I just ordered some red ones!

 

If you tighten the bolts do not tighten them too much as they will break if you treat them like a regular screw. These screws are soft aluminum and meant to break at a certain torque limit, just nip them up.

 

It looks like the common valve cover gasket leak. Its a pretty easy fix. pull the covers clean them up new rtv sealant and put them back on. there is a detailed instruction somewhere on this site. with pictures ect.

 

Just curious, is California that bad on inspections where you have to put original equipment back on?

 

Yes, any after market equipment that is not CARB Approved will have to be removed cause they do a visual inspection as well.

Like even though my car is pretty modified, it still passes the tail pipe emissions test easily. But if they saw my headers and aftermarket intake, they would fail me.

 

Pretty easy job to replace the gasket. I took mine off to paint them, but im sure NWs does a better job

 

Yep. Looks like the valve cover leak that I had the pleasure of fixing on my car just a few weeks ago. It really is not that difficult to fix, but take your time; clean clean clean and do the job right the first time so you don't have of deal with it again for a long time.