I have a severe oil leak on the driver side of the engine up high but seems to be below the intake manifold . The whole side of the engine is soaked with oil after only about 50 miles of driving. 282,000 miles on the clock & I'm getting a pretty steady steam of blue smoke out of the vent at the front of the engine & enough oil to coat the front of the engine, the fan & the radiator shroud. Anyone want to give me an idea of what the heck could drool that much oil ? I put a K&N crankcase vent filter on the breayher tube & thats when the leak got really bad. I've taken the K&N off but i still get quite a bit of oil & besides being a mess, I run ams/oil & it's **** expensive ! Yeah, I'm not much of a mechanic anymore. Eyes & hands going south. Thanks for any help tracking this bugger down.

 

Its most likely the vacuum pump seal leaking engine oil or the power steering pump leaking PS fluid. If you can determine which fluid type it is then they may help you out.

 

Ive done this before. Clean and dry area. Use a lawn blower to speed up drying. Laugh but it helps. Put talc or baby powder all over suspected area. This may be fun upside down shooting it up where the vac pump and hydro boost connect. Drive around town lower speeds and check.
This was also good when I had a small fuel leak on main frame rail fuel line. Again sounds funny. Dont drive through any inspection stations. Lol u may be seen with white powder substance.
The k/n filter isnt the problem.
If u are also having some " blow by " as we call it from the vent and its more now. Search blow by vent on here tons of stuff to check. From worn piston rings to simple hoses cracked or knocked off that r on hydro boost. Usually the small hoses on firewall above the fuel filter housing that go into a plastic T fitting.

 

KDP may be a culprit. Carefully check the top of the timing gear case for cracks or outright holes.

 

The KDP should have been long addressed by 02, but possible.

Dieselwrks method is a tried but true one, it'll locate your leak.

 

My guess is the tappet cover. OP I don't know how much oil you're adding and at what rate - but a severe leak can the tappet cover.

Runs nearly the length of the block under the intake manifold. Can leak a little or a lot. Just replaced mine in the last 2 weeks.

 

Mine was the tappet cover. Oil everywhere, and hard to track down. Dried and cracked.

 

Agree with others on the tappet cover. It can leak a lot of oil.