Greetings,

Ok, I've been up and down my engine lately, mostly for fun but for some repairs as well.

I found that on my intake manifold, below the valve cover gasket and below and in between the injectors sits a small puddle of what appears to be oil. Perhaps it's fuel? It's hard to say but it really does not look like it comes from the valve cover gasket. Would this be another symptom of a leaky intake gasket?

What do you think?

Here's a pic. Please know that I soaked it up yesterday and this pic was taken today. Don't let the colour fool you. The fluid was pretty dark:

 

Smell it and feel it. Oil and gas usually smell very different. Plus small amounts of gas like that would normally evaporate in a short amount of time.

My guess, oil. Source could be a few things.
- Depending where, bad pouring of new oil during an oil change.
- UIM or LIM gaskets
- Valve cover gaskets

Those are my best guesses. Clean it up for now, see if it comes back. Looks pretty small.

 

Definitely oil. That's a common spot for oil to pool on the 3800s, either valve cover gasket or UIM gasket.

 

I took a close look when I got home just now and there is no new pool yet. I did see that the UIM gasket is wet and the valve cover gasket appears to be dry.

It's not poured oil because I haven't added any since yesterday when I cleaned it. Hopefully I can get some answers when I drive like hell to work tomorrow.

How does oil get into the UIM?? I think I can answer that one, but there it is anyways