A while back, my father-in-law and I had a discussion about oil leaking from his 78 Chrysler Cordoba. To contain the oil in the garage, he used a cooking tray with newspaper inside to keep the oil off of the floor. When I asked him if he were going to fix the leak, his response was "why fix it and pay $100-$1000 depending on the repair when it costs me 1 quart of oil every other month? Besides, look at the oil in a parking lot. All cars leak oil"

So for my leaking 914, I just use cardboard in the garage, works good. However, the 914's been banned from my friend's driveway since he doesn't like the oil spots. I thought about carrying some cardboard in the trunk and whipping it out when parked on driveways. Then I thought about my father-in-law and decided to carry a cooking tray with me. Not in the trunk but under the car. So with a couple of hose clamps and one of my wife's cooking trays, I now have a drip-less 914. It still leaks but not on the driveway. The next step is to add an old towel on the inside to absorb the oil, and a cookie cooling rack to keep the towel in place. Some day I may rebuild the engine, but for now, I'll just drive it.

Spoke

OY! MY EYES!

© 2004 Miles Hendrix

And after the fire you can't collect an insurance cheque because you had a tray full of flamables stuck to the bottom of your engine. Mine leaks too, I think the cardboard might be a better idea. These things burst into flames easy enough. . Just some food for thought.

LOL!!! Thats great.


Miles, I love the A in the profile. Thats not scarlet though, it looks like bright red.

Just fix the leak, or let it leak. Don't park in friends driveways, but get that air blocking piece of metal out of there!

That's the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

Don't forget a drain plug in the center.

THIS SHOULD BE A TECH ARTICLE

prototypical 914 owner



that's probably not wise for so many reasons, but i'm still laughing my ass off! nice idea!

Yeah, I would think cooling would be an issue with that thing thar.

<_< . another reason to climb under the car.

hmmm... oil + rag + hot environment = catastrophic fire...

So I'm watching this show on speedvision, I can't remember the name, maybe 'Victory by Design"? The one where they focus on a marque and go through it's heritage from the beginning, and one of them was some rickety-assed looking racer from the 20s or something - the narrator mentioned there weren't seals on the motor (or they were rope seals maybe, I don't remember exactly), so the oil leaked out into a built-in catch tray under the engine.

So I guess hey, if the factory did it, why can't we, right?


If you're careful, you can just collect it all and pour it back into the motor once in a while, saving the environment AND money. Bonus!

Classic

Thanks LOL

Glad to see I am not the only one who watches the "RED and GREEN" show

Hey, thanks for the feedback about the hot environment. I haven't done the rag thing yet and maybe I won't. It's just a plain pan right now. Not parking in friend's driveways is an option but not very practical or desirable. Its been about 10 days since I've hung the pan and there's just a bit of oil in it. Maybe a cleanout every other week is in order.

I haven't made the commitment to overhaul the engine to fix the leaks. Being a 1.7L, I'm not even sure I want to keep the engine. Then on the other hand, I'm very reluctant to dump tons of cash into a car which I've heard won't increase much in value even with a bunch of upgrades.

I'm curious about the cooling comments. The pan is a good 3-4 inches off of the oil pan, and the fins on the oil pan are not that deep, indicating that the amount of cooling from those fins is of a second order effect. Also, without forced airflow, the fins are not meant to provide cooling when at rest or at low speeds. The only cooling for the engine at rest or slow speeds is the forced air over the cylinders and oil cooler. Am I really compromising the cooling of the engine with this pan?

Spoke

The cooling air gets forced DOWN and out over the cylinders and the oil cooler. You are blocking that air from escaping (or at least slowing it down) which will cause temps to rise. You are also reducing the effect that air rushing under the car has on drawing hot air away from the engine. I think it is a bad idea given the fact that the stock motor usually needs as much cooling as it can get. If you really want to know, get an oil temp and CHT gauge and measure it with and without the pan with the same outside temperature, and let us know what you find out!

Also, heat exchanger fires do happen. Keeping pools of oil near the exhaust on purpose is a really bad idea.

Maybe the picture is misleading. The width of the pan is about 11 inches and barely covers the bottom of the engine. The airflow over the cylinders is not hindered at all. The pan is also not near the heat exchangers although I can understand how oil on the exchangers could be an issue. I don't have a temp gauge but I'll try to monitor the temp with my finger gauge until I get one. Thanks, I appreciate the input.

Spoke

This is why Jake doesn't get many 914 owners buying his engines... lots of CSOB's out there.

Oil + rags is probably more dangerous than just Oil

I have seen upper parts of heat exchangers with collected oil, just cooking off and not catching fire... stay away from the rags.

- Dave

Spoke, drive the sucker down to my house and will give it the once over I have some good times finding leaks and fixing most on my 2.0L. The major pain now is the TACO plate leak..but that is not too bad.

Shoot me an e-mail and if you feel like taking a Sat or Sunday drive stop by. Maybe we can get that leak under control

Cheers