SOVREN Vintage Races / 164S oil leak

["Zacharey Cox (Entex)" <a-zachc@domain.elided>]

Wow what a great day of racing by our fellow Alfa owners at Seattle
Internationl Raceway this weekend.  I was there Saturday but could not make
Sunday due to a problem with my 164S (more on that in a minute).  Steve
Schaeffer was having quite a good time outbraking 911's and just barely
inching the tail around in his 67(?) GTV.  Great show Steve!  Thanks for
taking the time to wave to us as you sped by!  

Now the problem with my '91 164S.  So Gordy Hyde and I are leaving the pits
and a I notice the engine is not as smooth as it should be (drove just fine
in the morning.  Then my was momentarily diverted by a fly yellow Lotus
Elise (yes it was an Elise - WA dealer plates) creeping through the parking
area under massive Evergreen trees.  I let the guy pull out so we could here
the exhaust note.  He punched it after leaving the parking lot and was gone.
Pretty good looking/sounding ride if you ask me.  Anyway, I decided to pull
over and 'check' things.  I pulled the front spark plugs and peered into the
plug wells.  The reason I did this was the car was behaving the same way my
old Milano did when I cleaned the engine and water got in the plug wells.  I
noticed a few drops of oil down there, no biggie.  The plugs in the back are
somewhat difficult to check so I just made sure the wires were seated good.
Ok, back on the road, let's get home.  Car was running like crap, I could
barely climb moderate grades at freeway speeds.

I dropped off Gordy and drove straight home to investigate.  When I was home
I started looking closer at things.  I pulled all 3 plugs at the front of
the motor and looked closer.  Nothing too abnormal.  I pulled (the back of
the motor) # 1 plug wire, and leaned over to see down the well, dry as can
be.  Pull #2, it's stuck kinda.  Pull harder and oh no.......oil all over
the place!  Hmmm, that's not right.  I used a screwdriver as a measuring
stick to see how much was in there.  About 2 inches.  Gee no wonder it was
running poorly.  I guess the plug wire connections don't like to be drowned
in oil :)

I've got the cam cover on with new rubber seals for the plug wells and a new
cam cover gasket.  Tonight when I get home I'll button everything up and
check for leaks, hopefully the rubber seal was the problem.

If anyone has experienced this same problem drop me a note offline as to
what the resolution was and how you discovered it.

Happy motoring,
Zach 
Redmond, WA
'91 164S
'76 Alfetta GT

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