alright i have a 98 kia sportage that has massive and i do mean MASSIVE OIL LEAK. i put the front up on ramps over the weekend expecting to see the oil pan soaked thinking it was the oil pan but nope its just about dry, but the bellhousing is completely soaked. now when isay massive imean to the ammount that it uses 5-7 quarts a week.i can see that the back of the motor is completely soaked in oil but i cant tell where its coing from. i was wondering if there was something common that goes to cause this before i just start replacing things. the vavle cover will be done soon as it needs a tune up any way.

oh one more quwstion does any one make a service manual for the sportage like chiltons or anything i cabt seem to find one anywhere in ct

Is it coming from inside the bellhousing or above?

From inside would most likely mean that the rear main bearing seal has failed. I have seen (not on a KIA) threaded oil galley plugs located behind the bellhousing leak-don't know if this engine has any or not.

Above could be a valve cover gasket-but that sounds like a huge amount of oil for that. I had a VW diesel that would blow the head gasket at the oil passage that fed the camshaft. Those engines made lots of oil pressure-especially when cold-and I had three head gaskets do that over the course of several years.

The factory service manual is available online here.

If the source isn't obvious, it might be worth it to have a shop dump some UV dye in the crankcase and then they can use a UV light (like CSI!) to pinpoint the source.

Good luck,

ks

You probably have a bad gasket on the head/cam cover, this is a common problem and is not difficult to replace the gasket.

Thanks for the INFO!!!

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yeah sorry shoulve stated that it was on the outside of the bell housing.
how hard is the cam seal to do? whats involved

Cam/Valve cover gasket isn't too hard and I replaced mine when I did the spark plugs. Same procedure as a plug change but with some extra bolts to undo to get the cover off. Good luck finding the leak. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />