Oil Leak and sealants

[tom52]

My Volvo 2020 has developed a small but annoying oil leak.
The leak is from the seam where the sump is bolted to the bottom of the engine.
The flat mating edges of sump and engine are bolted together with small nuts and bolts about 40mm apart. There are dozens of them and some are difficult to access. Presumably there is a gasket between the mating edges.
I am reluctant to attempt removal to replace the gasket.
Is there any sealant or liquid gasket that can be 'grouted' into the seam that would stop the leak ?

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[supermalc]

Although I have no experience of this engine, oil leaks rarely occur from the sump gasket, unless the bolts have come loose with vibration. Have you tried tightening the sump bolts? Oil leaks are usually from the front seal, behind the pulley, or from the rear seal in front of the flywheel. They are usually caused when there is some wear in the crankshaft main bearings, or the seals have been scored by dirt.

If you definately know it is the sump gasket, you may be able to loosen all the bolts, and use silicon sealer to push between before retightening.

Sometimes on boats it is better just to have a drip tray if the engine is almost inaccessable.

<hr width=100% size=1>Malcolm. Just trying to be helpful.

 

[Althorne]

Like supermalc says there is a gasket all the way around the sump pan and it's unusual for this to start leaking unless disturbed, however if it is leaking I would suggest that you try to do the job properly by dropping the whole pan and replacing the gasket according to manufacturers spec'. If this not feasable you could drop the pan as much as possible but leaving a number of the bolts in and use a sealer as suggested previously. You will have to drain the oil and clean the lower edge of the engine block and the sump pan face with a degreaser otherwise the new sealer will not adhere and the leak could be worse.
I wish you the best of luck with a difficult problem

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