Does the Oil Leak Additives work ?

I have a small oil leak from my spyder

Personally, I wouldn't add any oil stop leak to a VW engine. In most cases, the oil leak is either the valve covers, pushrod tube seals or the bottom oil plate with an occassional oil cooler leak. Try to locate the leak and make the repair rather than add the stop leak addative.

Luis - Don't do it....Several years ago I had a friend who added "oil stop leak" to his Porsche 356 1600 cc engine. It did some funky things to some of his gaskets and seals and caused the engine to run hot. He didn't ruin it but he came close and he probably paid three times what it would have cost to repair the original leak, which was a an oil cooler like Larry mentioned.

Where is the leak coming from? I developed a small leak during an Autocroos last summer and it turned out to be the valve cover gasket. Cost of repair $2.50, time of repair (under 20 minutes). Probably less than the cost of stop leak.

It seems that the leak comes from under the motor just between the gearbox and the motor, maybe is a seal that got shrinked, any sugestions to fix it without unistalling the motor?, so those additives do not workat all?, what could happen if I apply one ?, could the seald ge damaged?

It seems that the leak comes from under the motor just between the gearbox and the motor, maybe is a seal that got shrinked, any sugestions to fix it without unistalling the motor?, so those additives do not workat all?, what could happen if I apply one ?, could the seals get damaged?

If as you say, the leak is coming from the area where the engine mates up to the Trans, it could be coming from the rear crankshaft seal located between the flywheel and the engine case or from the transmission input shaft.

Is the oil thick 90 weight trans oil or engine oil?

If it's the engine crankshaft seal or the transmission input shaft seal, it absolutely requires removal of the engine. If it's the flywheel seal, the flywheel must be removed and a new seal installed. The trans input shaft seal is located where the shaft enters the transmission on the bellhouse side.

Not to worry you but another leak location could be a cracked case behind the #3 cylinder only visible when the flywheel is removed. (Possible but not probable)

If it's the oil cooler, (you'll usually be able to see an oil trail from the internal cooler by looking at the engine from the top)
This leak can be fixed with the engine still in the car. Requires complete removal of the carb cross bar linkage and the fan shroud. (2) rubber seals are located between the block and the cooler.

The last location for a leak as described is the camshaft plug. It too is located behind the flywheel. This requires total disassembly of the engine to repair. (Very rare)

Good luck

Thanks for your advice Larry, this is what I did, I got despertate last friday and added the additive form Wynns, and it did not worked, it looks that I just throwed away my money, today I took my spyder and fix it, it was the engine crankshaft seal that failed, anyway I am goig to change the oil in 2 weeks so the additive does not cause any trouble, which oil is better ? the monograde SAE 60, syntethic (pretty expensive) or multigrade 20-50W, I plan to have oil changes every 2000 kms because I have an 8mm oil pump without oil filter, is the expensive syntethic oil worth it? or is just a myth? what do you think?

Luis - I asked the same questions to a tech advisor of the company that built my engine (SCAT) and they indicated that synthetic oil was NOT a good idea. It seems that although synthetic oil has lubricating qualities superior to mineral based oil, it is inferior in terms of cooling the engine.

Luis, aside from pulling the engine, the flywheel seal is easy to fix.

Here is a link, (2) pages devoted to various oil's.

Read the posting by Jake Raby, he talks about some specific brands that work well for him.

www.spyderclub.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5101&start=0

Personally, If you're going to change oil every 2,000 km's which equals only 1,240 miles, I'd use a name brand non-synthetic 10-40 or 20-50w oil. Putting synthetic oil in your engine on that frequency will get extremly expensive and probably isn't worth the cost.

Early VW and Porsche recommended oil changes every 3,000 miles or 5,000km's.

Don't use this stuff in an aircooled engine! It has a consistency to find the leaks and then plug them......all the while its also plugging the oil cooler as well as oil galleys.

Remove the engine, find the issue and repair it- despite the work involved. If you use the oil sealing crap you may not have much of an engine left after it does its job!

Jake, you're a little too late, If you had read on, you would have discovered that he put the oil stop leak stuff in his engine, ""it still leaked"" He then discovered that the flywheel seal was leaking as I had suspected and posted.

He's getting the seal repaired. I sent him a link to your royal purple and valvoline oil comments from Spyder club

Thank you for all your help, right now the spyder is already fixed, and I think that I am going to change the oil next saturday so that stop leak additive dont cause any problems, I am going to use an oil flush cleanning stuff and replace all the oil with Quaker State SAE 60 monograde, it has very good viscosity and my engine will have better prottection, and is cheap, about $ 3.00 per litter.... thak you very much guys............

Luis, I hope that stuff isn't 60 weight, if so, it's far too thick for your engine

Ok Larry if that is too thick what kind of oil would you suggest me ? a 50 perhaps? or a 20W-50? and which brand is better ?

Depending on where you live will determine the oil weight. If you live in a cold climate and drive your car, then a 10-40 wt would be good for the winter, even a 5-20 if it's REALLY cold. If you live in a climate similar to So. Florida or So. Calif. then a good 20-50wt would be ideal. Personally, I've used 20-50 for about 100 years with good success (ok, I exagerated, actually 30+ years)

I like Castrol but any name brand will work fine provided you change oil often.

Synthetic blends are good but some people claim more heat retention where as Jake Raby touts Royal Purple and Valvoline synthetic stating that they work well.

In a previous post, I stated:

Personally, If you're going to change oil every 2,000 km's which equals only 1,240 miles, I'd use a name brand non-synthetic 10-40 or 20-50w oil. Putting synthetic oil in your engine on that frequency will get extremly expensive and probably isn't worth the cost.

Larry thank you for your help, now I am going to procced with a 20W-50 from Quaker State, there is another issue, please do not sell your Spyder if you want a Shelby Cobra why don

Thanks Luis, my only problem would be registering the car in the USA. I hear it's very tough to get the car certified for use in the states.
As much as I love cars, I don't get too attached to them, kind of like women, I love women but given the choice, I'd have a whole bunch of them instead of only one.

As much as I enjoy my Spyder, I'm ready to move on. Probably nothing will happen for several months and the deal with my wife is that I sell this car before I move on to something else.


Thanks again

Larry, which wife is this? She doesn't read your posts does she?

Mike, I'm not saying anything, my lips are sealed, who wrote this???

Well Larry hope that your wife don

Luis,


Very well put. Send some of those people that are offering to buy your car my way

Ok Larry the problem is that our goverment does not allow us to import used cars until year 2009, only importation of new cars are allowed, sorry but you will have to sell your car somewhere else.... bye...