Oil leak and hard start

[SMWilson]

Hey all, been a long time since I've been on. I know you guys will pull through for me here. My truck, a 2002 7.3L, has had a small oil leak for about the past 6 weeks, the rear of the engine is always wet and it leaves a very small puddle everytime I park somewhere. I was out of the country for about a month of this time. Now when I got back, it ran fine for about a week. Then Sunday I left the house, truck started with no problems, waited for the glow plugs, drove about a mile, sputtering the last half, then it died. I managed to creep, with the pedal to the floor, to a subdivision nearby, before it died. I let it sit a few minutes and tried starting it again. This time it was very hard to start and blew white/blue smoke the whole time. I was trying to get back home, but only made it about 100 yards before it died again, and that's where it sits now. I changed the CPS, for the second time, and that made no difference. Any idea where the leak might be? I'm sure you guys know how hard it is to see anything on the back side of the engine. Hopefully fixing the leak will help with the starting problem. Also, I put 8 new glow plugs in this past Feb. Thanks guys.

 

[overworkedunderpaid]

My guess on the leak would be the pedestal seals or the EBPV actuator arm seal on the pedestal. Not sure if either of those would affect the starting problem though??? I'm sure someone else will chime in with the exact answer and you'll be up and running in no time.

 

[Clyde99]

I'd suspect a bad injector and or o-rings for the hard start/lack of power issue, as to the oil leak I agree with OWUP.

 

[BJS]

when you replaced the glow plugs did you replace the glow plug relay if not then I'll flag it as suspect.

As for the oil leak the above mentioned seals as well as the oil rail end plugs have been known to leak at the o-ring.

 

[SMWilson]

Looks like it might be the valve cover gasket on the passenger side. I re-used the gaskets when I changed my glow plugs last year and this one seems to be leaking now. I removed the front, passenger side wheel well to get a better look and it seemed pretty obvious from there. Thanks for all the help guys. I'm sure I'll be back soon.