Oil leak, 'clapping' sound and fumes in cabin - help!

[VanAid<3]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice. I'm a relatively new owner to a 69 Westy imported from California. Although she's new to the UK I was driving her for months in the States with the only problem being that the oil levels drained ridiculously quickly and so I was topping up before each drive - though there was never any signs of oil leaking onto the floor.

Anyway, a few weeks back I was having real problems from what seemed to be fumes coming into the cabin (they seemed to be coming from the vents rather than through floor etc.) which was making me feel extremely sick and dizzy - not good! I took her to a local restoration garage. When I came back he said he had replaced the rocker cover and that should have sorted the fumes and the oil leak. It worked for a few weeks but then I began to notice the fumes back and oil was now beginning to leak onto the floor from which it had not done previously. I took it back to him to get a Waxoyl treatment and (apart from damaging my seals and door cards) said he had tightened the rocker cover and it should be fine again. Upon driving home from the garage every now and then I heard like a clapping sound coming from the back of the van. I can't really describe it as anything other than sounding like someone with a very loud single clap. As soon as I got it home I noticed it was leaking again onto the garage floor. I have only taken her out once more and can still hear the 'clap' sporadically.

So...my question - does anyone have an idea of what this is? It didn't happen before the rocker cover was replaced - is it related? Not sure whether to go back to this guy or find someone else.

I put my faith in your generosity and knowledge!!

Thanks!

P.S The drips of oil cover most of this area so it's hard to ascertain where they are coming from



Vanessa

 

[slow-lane-Matt]

....even as a non mechanic you can whip off the rocker covers, scrape off the old gasket, fit new and see what happens - that should only take five minutes and cost a couple of quid. Assuming the rocker covers edges are true and undented and there's no crud in the fitting channels they should be oil tight... The clips to remove the covers should be pretty stiff.

But losing oil but not via a leak sounds serious - like it's leaking into the fuel system and getting burnt, which would account for the fumes - but I'll let someone else more knowledgeable comment on that...

Is the exhaust smokey and blue when engine warm ?

 

[Robert Parry]

That sounds like the cylinder heads are loose, it is a common fault. The clapping sound is the pressure in the cylinder escaping and the fumes go out with it. On the early engines with 10mm cylinder head studs the threads in the case can pull and you would need to strip the motor down to replace them. I am doing one at the moment, I always put inserts in to prevent this. Robert