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[JonDMilton]

Having a devil of a time with my V6 (Y26SE engine) and an oil leak on the passengers side (rear of engine) that is dripping onto the exhaust and causing a lot of smoke.
The local garage at first diagnosed a warped CAM cover and CAM covers for both sides were changed (along with fouled DIS pack on the passengers side.)  Engine steam cleaned so no residual oil - engine starts to smoke again and so another trip to the garage.  Queried them about the breathers and they informed me they had cleaned them and that the issue was the head gasket.  Decided to have the work done (including the timing belt at the same time), after a rather long time whilst the mechanic got the engine back together (another saga of timing issues) the oil leak is back.  Latest view of the garage is that the heads need to be skimmed and they are dropping it off at the local engineering shop to do so.
My query is whether with cleaned breathers, new CAM covers, new HG it is reasonable to point an on going leak at needing to skim the heads?  Could we be looking at a cracked block here?
Any thoughts welcome as this is saga is doing my brain in.

[05omegav6]

Pattern cam covers will leak in pretty short order, especially if overtighted.

Equally, if the gasket isn't seated correctly in the cam cutouts, or sealant isn't used in the correct places, even genuine seals will leak

Head gasket and skimming is unlikely to solve the problem imho

[powerslinky]

Having a devil of a time with my V6 (Y26SE engine) and an oil leak on the passengers side (rear of engine) that is dripping onto the exhaust and causing a lot of smoke.
The local garage at first diagnosed a warped CAM cover and CAM covers for both sides were changed (along with fouled DIS pack on the passengers side.)  Engine steam cleaned so no residual oil - engine starts to smoke again and so another trip to the garage.  Queried them about the breathers and they informed me they had cleaned them and that the issue was the head gasket.  Decided to have the work done (including the timing belt at the same time), after a rather long time whilst the mechanic got the engine back together (another saga of timing issues) the oil leak is back. Latest view of the garage is that the heads need to be skimmed and they are dropping it off at the local engineering shop to do so.
My query is whether with cleaned breathers, new CAM covers, new HG it is reasonable to point an on going leak at needing to skim the heads?  Could we be looking at a cracked block here?
Any thoughts welcome as this is saga is doing my brain in.

Frightened to ask how much that lot is coming to     .   My humble opinion would be that they have used patten parts, along with lack of expertise on these cars  & it's probably still a cam cover leak .  Over tightening of the cam covers is fatal .   Head gasket failure is  really rare on the V6

Sorry that you are having so much trouble.

[amba]

Suggest you claim all money paid so far for shoddy work and inadequate parts /knowledge of fitting parts to your car ,and take it to somebody who understands how to wrok correctly on these engines.Plenty of guys on forum that would be able to offer far superior work/advise.

As for new head gaskets then head skimming ...utter cobblers imho  ...change your garage PDQ

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Having a devil of a time with my V6 (Y26SE engine) and an oil leak on the passengers side (rear of engine) that is dripping onto the exhaust and causing a lot of smoke.
The local garage at first diagnosed a warped CAM cover and CAM covers for both sides were changed (along with fouled DIS pack on the passengers side.)  Engine steam cleaned so no residual oil - engine starts to smoke again and so another trip to the garage.  Queried them about the breathers and they informed me they had cleaned them and that the issue was the head gasket.  Decided to have the work done (including the timing belt at the same time), after a rather long time whilst the mechanic got the engine back together (another saga of timing issues) the oil leak is back.  Latest view of the garage is that the heads need to be skimmed and they are dropping it off at the local engineering shop to do so.
My query is whether with cleaned breathers, new CAM covers, new HG it is reasonable to point an on going leak at needing to skim the heads?  Could we be looking at a cracked block here?
Any thoughts welcome as this is saga is doing my brain in.

Can I ask how much you have already shelled out to this garage?

[tunnie]

Cam cover issue diagnosed as head gasket 

I'd look at asking a member here to take a look, Chris maybe? He lives in Reading 

[Bigron]

I would go back to that garage and start talking about the Small Claims Court, unless they refund at least a major part of what you have spent so far, as they are terminally incompetent.
Can you determine if the cam covers are genuine Vauxhall? If they are not, that will strengthen your case.
If Chris is unable to help, I know from personal experience that JamesV6CDX is an excellent man and not too far from you.....

Ron.

[TheBoy]

I'm very suspicious of the diagnosis.

If oil was dripping onto the exhaust manifold, how can it be HG (or cylinderhead to HG). If it leaked below the exhaust manifold, it would just run down the engine block, and drip.

I'd say a poor attempt at changing cam cover gaskets TBH.

[VXL V6]

Just a point to note regarding skimming V6 heads...

If you skim the head(s) the inlet that the bridge bolts too will be in a very slightly different position. I believe there is a very fine tolerance specified by GM.

[JonDMilton]

Thanks for the answers.  Other than the CAM covers none of the work is paid for yet (can't say if they are over-tightened or what sealant was used (and where)), I can say they are genuine Vauxhall parts.)
I will provide an update on the saga after my next conversation with the garage based on what you all state.

[chrisgixer]

First. Stop them taking the heads off immediately.

Hi Jon, sorry to hear this.
Pound to a penny they've ballsed up the cam cover job. Almost certainly. If the cam cover is warped or damaged they should have spotted that when the cover came off.

Second. What cam cover gaskets did they use? If anything other than genuine vx they need re doing.



If the cause is the head gasket I'll eat my hat.


Daft looney is due a London visit soon. Send him a message. I'm unavailable for two weeks sadly.

Otherwise happy to help.

Regards

Chris

(Not far from Reading )

[4x4]

If you can,print off the how to guide on cleaning breathers and replacing cam cover gaskets,give it to the garage,and tell them to follow both the guides.

[powerslinky]

If you can,print off the how to guide on cleaning breathers and replacing cam cover gaskets,give it to the garage,and tell them to follow both the guides.

Hi Jon ,
    It may be difficult  but, myself & I'm sure several others on here would advise you  to get your car  out of there if you can . Then let one of the guys on here  who  specialise in theses cars  do the work . It will be a lot cheaper & more importantly  . . done correctly .
If you cannot get the car back then I would print off the required pages from the maintenance guide on here  & present it to them before they touch the car again.as 4x4 suggests   

Just hope they have not removed the heads      If you need advice on who to use from here to do the work , just ask , there are several   

[JonDMilton]

Thanks all.  Guides printed off and taking them today to the garage along with the views of those on the forum.  I have a feeling I will be asking for help as I have no confidence in them resolving the issue!

[Marks DTM Calib]

So, starting with the basics, lets consider what oil gets to the top of the engine and how.

Here is a pic of the passages through the head and head gasket on the V6 cylinder head (yes a real one!)



The blue areas are coolant passages, under normal running, these are pressurised but drop to approx. atmospheric pressure as the engine cools down - failure of a gasket or cylinder head here would mean a water leak (normally at the rear of the head) or severe coolant consumption accompanied with a miss fire. Note: the 2.6 has multi layer steel gaskets and true gasket failure is all but unheard of.

The brown areas are oil return passages where the oil drops back to the sump. Thanks to the breather system, these are under a slight vacuum (assuming breathers are not blocked!).

The small red area is THE only place where pressurised oil passes and is nicely away from anything other than the head edge. This is protected by a copper insert in the gasket and is on the valley side of the head.....so a long way from the manifolds, a failure here would result in pressurised oil getting into the valley (never ever seen a failure like this)

So, to get an oil leak, that high up the engine that it can get near the manifolds, THE only place it can come from is the cam covers or maybe the O ring at the base of the oil filler tube.

To add further evidence......the head gasket actually sits BELOW the exhaust manifolds.

So an oil leak of this type, being associated with the head gasket, can only occur if there is some sort of anti gravity device in the vicinity of head gasket allowing oil to travel upwards and even then, it would require a failure of the breather system to allow the oil return points to be pressurised.