Oil leak from timing chain cover.

[philthehill]

What may look to be a oil leak from the front engine seal may not be what it first seems.
If you have a timing chain cover with the oil separator/flame trap canister installed check that the bottom of the canister is not rusted through with pin prick sized holes.
Any condensate in the engine will settle in the bottom of the canister (especially if the gauze is not clean) and the condensate will eventually rust through the bottom of the canister as I have just found out today after cleaning the grunge out of the canister of what appeared to be a very good condition timing chain cover.
It appears that the canister cannot be just fit and forget it needs to be cleaned on a regular basis - but that is not an easy task.
Update:
I decided to have a look at another timing chain cover with oil separation canister and that one is the same in that it has pin holes rusted from the inside out.
The bottom of the canister is approx. 1/2" below the aperture from the timing chain cover so any condensate cannot drain back into the sump and of course the canister is in direct line of cold air so condensate is bound to form especially if the canister filter is blocked.
As a result of my finding several perforated canisters I have decided to fit a Mini 'A' Plus timing chain cover without breather and fit a Mini clutch housing breather (which is the same as that fitted to the timing chain cover but can be easily unbolted to enable it to be cleaned) to the redundant mechanical fuel pump housing.

[philthehill]

The first photo is of a new Mini breather/oil trap/flame trap (MINI SPARES Pt No: LLC10047) temporarily mounted on the adapter plate and installed on my spare 'A' Plus block over the redundant mechanical fuel pump hole.
The second photo is the Mini 'A' Plus simplex timing chain cover without breather/oil trap/flame trap that has had the timing sensor dimple and sensor mounting bracket removed.
The redundant fuel pump hole is equivalent to that through the front of the block and accesses the timing chain cover so there is no reduction in crank case breathing capacity with this set up and of course the canister can be easily removed and cleaned[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[philthehill]

The additional breather installed over the redundant Marina/Ital fuel pump mounting aperture on the N/S of the block:-[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

In due course the timing chain cover currently fitted (with breather) will be replaced with the Mini 'A' Plus one (picture above) which does not have the breather.

[M25VAN]

That's a bit of pipework going on there.
Are they socket cap screws fixing the timing chain cover and did you use them for any particular reason?
Thanks

[philthehill]

There is quite a bit of coolant pipe work on the N/S of the engine. Mainly feeding the radiator which is mounted under the boot floor (if there was a boot floor) and the transfer pipe from the rear of the head to the bottom hose.
Yes they are socket headed cap screws securing the timing chain cover; my preference is to use socket cap set screws/bolts where possible but still some way to go before all set screws/bolts are changed.
Phil

[M25VAN]

Ah, I'd forgotten about the radiator being at the rear.
Thanks