Hey guys. I have a 96 civic EX with 134k miles and it been leaking oil for some time now. I've just recently started learning auto mechanics so excuse me if I'm a little off. We took the car to the shop a few weeks ago and they told us it was the distributor O-ring. they told us it would cost $100 to fix. So instead I took it to my mechanic friend and I watched him do it. Took all of 5 minutes. So I figured it would stop now. It does seem to have improved but it is still leaking oil. I even cleaned off all the old oil from where the distributor was leaking. So now I'm trying to figure out what the leak is from. My other mechanic friend thinks it is the valve cover gasket but he hasnt looked at it yet. I know the previous owner did the valve cover gasket and that was less than 10k miles ago. I looked at it a little more the other day and I saw that it is not just leaking on the distributor side but all around the bottom end. I couldnt see any fresh oil but there is sludge on the whole bottom end. However, the top end is spotless. This leads me to believe it is the head gasket. However, the car is not overheating, the coolant is crystal clear green and it runs and starts fine. So what the hell is going on?! I'm supposed to be taking it for a 1200 mile roundtrip to Florida next month and I need to get the leak fixed. Any help would be great, thank you!

 

picture of leaking area please.

 

I'll take one as soon as I can I'm at work right now :P
But that's part of the problem is that I can't find a leak anywhere its just from the head gasket down is sludge. Living in north GA its not uncommon that we have to take it down a dirt road so the dirt gets on the oil and it just turns into nasty sludge thats really hard to get off. >.<

 

Use engine degreaser, cover electrical parts and air filter or air box opening with plastic bags, and use a manual car wash pressure hose to spray the engine bay down. Then look for the leak after the engine is clean. This will help you pinpoint it, and your engine bay will be clean.

 

Also check the VTEC solenoid on the back side of the head near the distributor. It may leak whenever the engine is running, or only when the VTEC is active, but it can leak a lot because it contains oil under pressure.

 

This^

Also check for oil inside the distributor. This would be caused by a bad internal seal.

Otherwise, replace the oil pan gasket, and then go from there.

 

in case anyone cares i finally fixed it i replaced both vtec solenoid gaskets which were leaking and then did the oil pan gasket and now it is not leaking at all!