Scottish Elises

Ok, now I'm puzzled.
Now that I have the car stripped and have a pretty good look at the engine I can confirm it's not the head gasket or from what I can see any of the obvious seals.
Is it possible it could be the gasket at the lower end of the engine (not the sump but the one above)
I've had the car running but nothing is obvious. My next thought is to run an ultraviolet dye through the engine to see if anything appears.
It is definitely from the rear of the engine. I don't really want to remove the engine before I identify the problem, but can't afford not to, if you know what I mean.

Cammy

I assume there is no new oil appearing anymore?

The crank ladder is sealed to the block with the anaerobic sealant rather than a gasket, I think, but yes it could leak from there - I guess if the sump was pressurised for some reason, that might cause a weak spot to leak.

How many miles has the car done? I seem to remember that the exige/340r engines are supposed to be rebuilt from time to time - if there is excessive piston wear you might overwhelm the breather, but again I doubt it - you could remove the breather at the cam cover and rev the engine a bit and see just how much it's blowing.

You don't need to remove the engine to remove and reseal the crank ladder/oil rail, but it's a complete strip down pretty much, so perhaps it's just as easy to remove it.

Cheers,
Robin

Is it worth pulling the cam cover off to check the breather, isn't there a brillo pad filter in there?

Can't see something leaking then stopping, unless its run out?

You sure its definatly not a gearbox leak?

Robin/Richard

Engine has done 12.5k. I think the breather you are suggesting now goes to a seperate catchment tank that was fitted with the 190 upgrade. This is positioned next to where the original air intake would be next to the side air scoop. 2 hoses go to this & 1 is definitely a breather & the other I presume to be for blowing oil out into the catchment tank.

I've cleaned everything down but cannott see anymore oil appearing from anywhere, but then its difficult to re-create the circumstances it happened under. I'll run the engine for a bit longer tonight and push the revs up a little more to see if anything re-appears

Cheers guys

I know nothing about how these work - if there are two pipes and one is connected to the cam cover breather, where is the other one connected to?

It might be worth checking it isn't full! And also worth considering what would happen if it were full ....

Cheers,
Robin