*Before the typical online forum hardasses "Use the search feature bruh, stupid newb" comments, I did search. "Oil" is too short of a term, this forum excludes it from the search.

Picked up an 02 EX from a co-worker for free! Runs and drives great. He said it overheated and needs a new headgasket, BUT this guy couldnt tell you the difference between gas and oil. I think he just googled "overheating" and of course headgaskets will come up, so he probably just assumed.

I added some water to the dirty old coolant, and had been driving for over 30 minutes perfectly fine. No overheating. Heat works great, AC blows ice cold, engine runs like a champ. Both Oil and Coolant are clean. (Coolant is old and dirty, but its just coolant) Nothings mixed.

However, the front of the engine is getting heavily covered in oil, there's a big leak somewhere. I haven't really messed with an engine other than normal maintenance, oil changes, spark plugs, etc, so this should be a fun learning experience. Excuse my lack of proper terms regarding the engine, lol.

The oil is on the front-most side of the engine, near where the coolant hoses run. I have a few pictures on my Photobucket that ill link below.

Any advice on what it could be? (Also- I only have basic hand and power tools, no fancy mechanic stuff)



(Yeah, I know, that ground will be replaced once I get this oil issue fixed)




I just washed this engine bay "somewhat" yesterday, so this has all happened through probably 20~ minutes of just idling and a few small rev's.

 

From the looks of it it looks like it could be a valve cover gasket. Or next to your EGR valve you can see it in the picture you posted. On the right hand side of that towards the bottom.. there is a small oil plug. I think its a dealer item but it's pretty easy to replace you just pop it out and put the new one back in and there's a rubber o-ring on the inside of it too. If you remove your EGR valve it's a lot easier to get to. When you get a chance take a flashlight and look where I described and you should be able to see it. If you don't know where your EGR valve is Google image it and it'll show you the location. But its in the picture you posted

 

I also think that the issue is caused by a worn out Valve Cover Gasket.

 

its the rear cam seal plug those always leak i just replaced mine. cost me 5 bucks for the plug at the dealer.