Massive Oil Leak

[Mystic3]

Freeze plug, massive oil leak, don't see the connection

[Mystic3]

Freeze plug (coolant)/massive oil leak ??

[marksae]

Okay, I will check the freeze plug. It does feel like something backed off to result in such a sudden leak.

Thanks.

[robgill]

I would check the freeze plug in the front of the head behind the VANOS. I had a similar experience and that plug had fallen out.

[marksae]

When I was on the freeway, my car developed a massive oil leak. Oil is everywhere on the front passenger side of the engine. Oil is all over the bottom side of the headers, frame rail, undertray, steering rack, suspension, and the front right wheel well. Prior to this, my car did not have any real leaks. I recently changed the CPV o-ring, front main seal, and the VANOS sealing plate seals. The leak appears to be coming from the timing chain tensioner area.

I removed the VANOS oil line and it did have a broken mounting tab. But when I examined it, there was no obvious sign of failure. I cleaned all the grime off it. The hardline portion of the line didn't have any obvious cracks or pin holes in it, even around the broken tab area. Thinking the flex portion might have failed, I removed the heat shielding but it was dry underneath. So am I wrong to conclude that my VANOS line did not fail? My car does have 168k miles. I plan on replacing the line anyway, but am worried this might not fix the issue. My car runs fine otherwise.

What else could have failed that would have resulted in a sudden massive oil leak? I checked my timing chain tensioner and it didn't back off. I was only able to put a socket on it, but not a ratchet since I didn't have enough room. What else should I be looking at?

Thanks.