I just recently bought a 91 Mazda 323, with a 4 cyl, 1.6 liter, 5 spd trans.

It had a small oil leak when I bought itaround the timing belt cover area ofthe car. I was assuming it was either the cam shaft or crank shaft oil seal. It was't leaking too bad, so I never got around to fixing it yet.

Now I believe I have an oil leak on the other side of the engine, a pretty large one. I just changed the oil in it 5 days ago and the oil light came on. I checked the oil and had to dump in 3 qts. I placed a clean piece of cardboard under the car. Getting a few large areas underneith the trany area.

Anyone know if these engines are known for oil leaks. I looked under the car and noticed the boot on the clutch or trany was partly off, or not sealed. Can oil leak out of that area at all. It looks like a boot just to keep dirt out. Its pretty plyable, very flexible.

One more thing, it is now starting a bit harder also. Use to take right off after only cranking over for a second or two. Now it'll crank over for like 10 to 15 seconds before it takes off.

Any help would be great.
Thanks, Dan

 

My brother had a Protege 1.8L that leaked around there. Replaced the valve cover gasket that solved it. Also look for oil pooling in the spark plug recesses as a tell tale sign of the valve cover gasket being the culprit.

Ditto again with my brother's Protege. The distributor o-ring gasket was replaced and this solved it. As withthe valve cover gasket, the o-ring gets old and hardens aka "cold harding'. Also when replacing the the o-ring, besure to mark the position of the distributor and the rotor or else you'll losing your timing.

Both these took less than half a day to do. Good luck Dan.

 

I forgot but also check the pcv valve or better yet just replace it as it costs about $5.

 

what i'v personaly noticed that causes issues like that is the hose right behind the valve covor, cant recal the name of it right now but its the one with the ball bearing in it that runs right out of the covor, check to see if that is seated right, cause if its not you it will leak on the rear of the covor and pool, causing oil to run both right and left and it will appear to be leakingin two spots on the ground, if not deff check the distributor seal

 

Is it the grommet/gasket for the PCV valve? If not, that's also could be the source and should be replaced along with the PCV valve hose. That's something I didn't have to replace but is a possible fault.