Ugly Oil Leak after Towing

Thought I should update this, better late than never! ;)
The oil leak turned out to be from the vacuum pump which had spat out a welch plug on the pressure side leaving a hole straight through into the block (what part of the block I don't know) and engine oil was being sprayed out. A replacement vacuum pump and a lot of skin scraped off my arms fixed the problem.
The faulty vacuum pump had a stubborn bit of rubber hose on the vacuum nozzle and while trying to remove the hose (by hand) the whole nozzle broke off - again it was a welch plug type of fitting. The pump was only a few years old having been replaced because of a gasket leak ~2006.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DiscoDave

Thought I should update this, better late than never! ;)
The oil leak turned out to be from the vacuum pump which had spat out a welch plug on the pressure side leaving a hole straight through into the block (what part of the block I don't know) and engine oil was being sprayed out. A replacement vacuum pump and a lot of skin scraped off my arms fixed the problem.
The faulty vacuum pump had a stubborn bit of rubber hose on the vacuum nozzle and while trying to remove the hose (by hand) the whole nozzle broke off - again it was a welch plug type of fitting. The pump was only a few years old having been replaced because of a gasket leak ~2006.

---

Hi Dave, just saw the thread and you beat me to it! The excessive oil leak along with a ticking noise can usually point straight to the vac pump!

Glad its fixed.

JC

There is also an "o"ring in the oil filter housing where the pipe from the oil cooler comes in, they compress and harden over time and most oil leaks around the oil filter area i've seen are fixed for a couple of dollars and a few minutes. I know this wasn't the case here but somthing to remmeber for the future.