[Fot] Triumph and Oil

[Bobby Whitehead]

After my wonderful weekend at TWS my little GT6 was showing more of the "marking 
of the territory" than I really liked... the source, I thought was coming from 
the ARE replacement front engine cover... someone in the re-assembly process 
(not me) had stripped out one of the mounting holes, even tapping a larger bolt 
to attach the timing cover. It's a short bolt that holds the timing cover only, 
not meant to attach to the block. Fortunately I had a spare and even though I 
didn't want to pull the timing cover and timing chain off, I methodically 
removed and carefully marked the timing chain to the crank. I used the flimsy 
thin paper gasket between the front of the block and the engine cover. I did not 
slather it with gasket material. After the fact I noticed I have some thicker 
gaskets, almost 3 times as thick. Re-assembled and thank goodness I didn't screw 
up the timing, but now I have more oil leaking from the front of the engine. 
It's either my flimsy seal or the oil pan is leaking up front. Sleepless nights 
realizing if the oil pan is leaking I have to pull the whole engine/transmission 
to get the oil pan off or try the thicker engine to engine cover gasket... 
thoughts?    Bobby Whitehead