Hi,
Haven't taken the car out for 6 months while working on another porsche project.
I have a possible push rod seal leak. Changed the VC cover gaskets. Didn't help.. As you know, oil leaks from that area drip onto the exchangers creating a smelly mess, especially when using Valvoline racing oil.
Question: I really want to drive this car to an event 10 miles away. Oil is slowly dripping onto the HE. It collects in the st ease and takes forever to burn off.
Is it safe to drive? Can it catch fire?
This design is not optimal. If a VW dripped oil it would be no problem...
Your thoughts?
Thanks!

Hell yes oil can catch fire. The exhaust is the hottest part of your engine it could happen.

If it leaks enough to puddle on the heat exhchangers, I'd find the source and fix it before driving. Not only because of fire, but because the leak could get way worse at speed. Do you know for sure it's a pushrod seal? It could be an oil cooler seal or the pressure sender on top near the distributor, which is also notorious for leaking. Post some pics of the underside and I'm sure the brain trust here can help....

I noticed a drip coming from the left side on the second push rod tube from the rear. Gotta say, the smoke coming off the exchanger and thru the defrosters looks much worse than an occasional drip could produce. I'll dig deeper tomorrow.
Thanks all.

Oil dripping onto the heat exchangers makes a ton more smoke than it seems it should...

--DD

Plus, it takes a long time to burn off the residue after the leak has been fixed. The car is smelly for hundreds of miles if it has leaked for very long.

Thanks for the additional comments. I pulled some of the tinware to get a better look and found very little accumulated oil. Two of the outboard pushrod seals appear to be slightly weeping. I did find what may be the source near/above a pushrod. Here is a photo.

Click to view attachment

Jack20:
(1) It looks like the leak is from the base of the cylnder barrel, not from the pushrod tube from those photos.
(2) The cable for the thermostat has come off the big pulley and needs to be put back on the pully for the cooling system flaps to function properly.

Ha! I was wondering I'df someone would catch the wire off the pulley.
Thanks for the comment. Looks like the leak is very slow and not likely to start spewing.
Given its location. The head is well secured and I torqued all the nuts when I had the engine out.

looks like its leaking from somewhere above and running down,clean it till spotless,start engine warm @ idle ,the oil will run pretty much downwards from the leak,I place a piece of white cardboard under the engine when trying to trace difficult leaks.
Good luck.