[alfa] Alfa Spider oil leaks

["Ritchie, Jason" <jritchie@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Spider weather has been around for about two months here in Boise and my
74 spider has come out of hibernation well and travelled about 450 miles
so far this year.  I'm now trying to solve a couple of problems that it
has.  The one that I have been worrying about lately is oil leaks.  I had
a good look at the engine today and see that oils seems to ooze out near
the head gasket.  The symptoms are oil drops on the floor when parking
after a drive.  The oil leaks stop once the car has cooled down as
demonstrated when I park in the driveway and then later pull into the
garage for the night.  Oil leaks will be on the driveway but not in the
garage.  There is no oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil.  I assume
this is just failing o-rings sealing the oil passages to the head.  Do I
worry about this right now?  Taking the head off would be fairly easy but
I am planning a "freshening" this winter and would like to just run it
for the summer which would mean about 3-4,000 miles.  Any suggestions on
my diagnosis or delayed maintenance?

Jason Ritchie
Boise, Idaho
74 Spider
86 GTV-6
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