Substantial Oil Leak

I have a 95 Caprice Wagon with the LT1 (obviously) Since I got the car a month ago, my oil pressure has been running a little high. Took it to the mechanic and he hooked up the scanner. Under load, everything looked ok, with constant pressure.

Come to two days ago, went to warm the car up before heading to work, started fine for being -5 out. Nothing major. Go to drive to work, and there is no oil pressure and the "check gauge" light is on.   No knocking, rattles, or any stumbling of the car. Drove it a block and parked it. Checked under the hood and there is no oil in the bay itself, which is what I would expect for a major issue. No oil in the coolant. Look on the ground and there is a large puddle of oil. Drain plug is in, oil filter is still attached, but I cant see any further than that. The cats have oil dripping on them. Thats as far as I can see, and with it being -5 and 30 mph winds with no garage to park it in, digging around is a little tough.

So my question to you experts is, where should I start looking to see what the issue is?  I have an appointment on Monday to have it looked at, and was going to get a couple quarts of oil to put in to see if it keeps going. Aside from that I am stumped.  

Thanks for any advice.

Need to know what type and year car you have.

Tom

Added. Thought I had put that in there. Sorry about that. Its a 95 Caprice Wagon.

Stick your hand behind the intake and see if it's wet.

If yes: you have a leaking intake gasket or a leaking oil pressure sensor

If no: remove flexplate inspection cover. is it full of oil?

If yes: start car with cover off and see if you see any new oil come down
If yes: leaking rear main seal

Ill check that when I get out of work. Thanks.

Don't "put a couple quarts in" and hope. Pull the dipstick. Look at it. Any oil? No? THEN, put in two. Put dip back, pull, check. Oil? Up to full? No? Continue to fill until full. Then, monitor it EVERY time you drive it. I had to start driving a back up car (2000 diesel Jetta) last week, and it has a leaking turbo return oil line. I was losing a little over a quart a day. It would be a failed engine after three days. However, by simply filling every morning before work, car is fine. Cost me 40 bucks in oil in two weeks, but the car is running great (and nicely undercoated). Fixed the leaking line today, btw.

I agree, leaking intake, or, leaking oil pressure sender.

I can't chance driving it at all. I was just going to put in the oil to see if there was an obvious leak. The car won't be moved till its driven two blocks to the mechanic on Monday.

oil pressure sending unit maybe failed,.

intake won't put a puddle on the ground that fast,. intake oil is "splash" oil not pressure leak.

So if the pressure sending unit fails, where would the oil be coming from? Does it pushed out from the unit itself?

piranah wrote:

Since I got the car a month ago, my oil pressure has been running a little high.

how do you know ?

I thought the gauge was correct and it was reading high, but im now finding out that the gauge on the dash is just for looks and basically only tells you if there is any pressure at all

jasonlachapelle wrote:

piranah wrote:

Since I got the car a month ago, my oil pressure has been running a little high.

how do you know ?

Factory oil pressure gauge is NOT just for looks, if it was only to indicate pressure yes/no it would be set up with just an idiot light.

If it's leaking from the oil pressure sensor it will be on the drivers side right behind the intake manifold.
If you are seeing a massive puddle under the car every time I'm gonna bet rear main. I had a 94 fleetwood that pissed quarts of oil out if you romped on it but only dripped under regular driving/idle.

Intakes are common with lt1. And I have had them so bad they dripped onto the cats and made a terrible mess.
You gotta start at the top and work your way down. If you put your hand behind the intake and feel around on the block and you get wet oil then obviously it's Not the rear main or an oil pan leak.

If you do get a wet oily hand up that high start with valve cover gaskets, intake and oil sender.

How does it leak from the sensor?

Mine had the housing above the oil filter that leaked quite a bit and needed new gaskets. It was a 95 RMW with LT1. Was about $150 to fix.

Ill have the mechanic take a look there too. Ill look behind the intake in a few minutes. My mechanic specializes in Camaro and Chevelle restoration so im sure they are well versed on where to look.

Quote :

Factory oil pressure gauge is NOT just for looks, if it was only to indicate pressure yes/no it would be set up with just an idiot light.

Sorry, it IS just for looks, and IS simply an idiot light. The only B bodies that got real oil pressure readings were 9C1s, and that is due to an actual oil pressure SENDER, not the oil pressure switch that is found on all other LT1 cars (wagons/SS/all). This is well documented, and easy to fix, however.

Dr. Downward wrote:

Factory oil pressure gauge is NOT just for looks, if it was only to indicate pressure yes/no it would be set up with just an idiot light.

That is incorrect.  The civilian LT1 B-Car's oil pressure "gauge" is wired to an oil pressure switch, not a sender.  You can only know that it has greater than 5 psi pressure.  It is essentially an "idiot light."

Edit: looks like Jay beat me to it.

Car is at the mechanic now. put in two quarts and the needle kept jumping up and down as I was driving. No massive puddles, but I will let you know what they find.

Got the car back. A previous owner had replaced an oil cooler line with a transmission cooler line, and the hose split, leaving 4 quarts of oil to be blown from the line.

Glad you fixed it. I had a huge oil leak a couple months ago. Mine ended up being the opti seal into the timing cover. The seal was so old, the seal actually separated from the steel outer. At idle it wouldn't leak, but when you drove around and put load on it, the car just spewed oil. I lost 3 quarts on my 30 mile drive home. Took me a while to find it, since the entire underside of the car was covered in oil.

"Got the car back. A previous owner had replaced an oil cooler line with a transmission cooler line, and the hose split, leaving 4 quarts of oil to be blown from the line."

Not sure why that would matter. Both do not build high pressure.