heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[maupineda]

Coming back to this.

Have been driving the car around and keeping an eye on this leak. I've yet to see it leak any more and have not smelled any oil since I first noticed it.

I only noticed the smell after a track day, so I'm starting to suspect that the second half of the last sentence in the quote above is incorrect.

I'm guessing that what actually happened was that the tensioner had a small leak and the oil got flung around due to the g forces on track. Some made it onto (or close) to the exhaust manifolds (hence smell), some made it onto the tensioner boss on the head and some made it all the way to the water pump pulley (hence the oil trail near the belts).

So, plan is to replace the tensioner crush washer with an annealed one (thanks maupineda for the suggestion!) and go from there. Maybe this will end up being an easy fix?

This does really work, I was having a persistent leak when I replace the rack and annealed the washer and now is bone dry. I for sake of hit test and you can bend them with the fingers after annealing so it does make the metal soft for a nice and easy ‘crush’

p.S. thanks for putting data to this! Spot on! The annealing also relieves stresses and at a much higher temp they will see in operation, so they won’t ‘anneal’ further which will prevent leaks overtime. My tensioner has been dry for the past two years.

you can also run a candle flame and the carbon residue goes off as you anneasl so you can use that as a gage, but seems the sharpie method is best. They will turn a bit orange and melt quickly after certain melt point is reached. I will be doing this with all my washers from now on.

[heinzboehmer]

I will be doing this with all my washers from now on.

Yep! I think I will too.