oil leak

[Fish&Fowl]

I have a 1996 Chevy 1500 with the 305 Vortec. I noticed the other day there was a oil spot under it about 4 inches across. After close watch there seems to be a 3-5 inch oil spot after I park it overnight. Any suggestions on where to suspect the leak? The truck has 149K on it. Thanks!

[Valv]

I would suggest crawling underneath and see whee it comes from, that would help a lot figuring out the problem.

[harvey lee]

I would do as Val suggested. When oil leaks it can make a mess in many places. I would guess it could be a pan gasket, front or rear main seal. Could also be valve covers.

Something has to be wet around the motor. A light and looking around from the bottom and following up both sides should show where the problem is.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Don't forget the popular oil cooler lines!

[meathunter]

its probably the oil cooler lines have a tahoe with 5.7 and a truck with the smaller v 8 and had to replace them before.

[pascooter94]

also the oilfilter base fixed mine on friday nite. 98 5.7 chevy.

[theoilman]

I wquld recommend cleaning and pressure washing, then check again closely after a small amount of driving. A fresh leak from a clean engine - much easier.

Oil pressure senders are some of the cheapest and easiest to replace. 305 and 350s used 2 or 3 - either just above the oil filter or at the top back of the block (just behind the intake). If you have an oem engine oil cooler, the gasket between the oil filter - adapter to block gives a lot of trouble, but not hard to replace (I have seen several that replaced the cooler lines when the problem was this gasket, spending a lot more money than necessary).

Of course there are many other possible leaks, but these are the ones that can start quickly and loose a lot of oil.

Get it clean, check again, then post again.

Good Luck.

[Fish&Fowl]

Thanks for the input guys. I crawled under there to try to see if I could find the source, but no luck. I will look into what was mentioned, with a little luck hopefully it will be relatively minor.