When ever I stop moving, and sit with the car running for a few minutes (2 min idle law here - haha) I get a waft of oily-ish smell coming through the climate control.

If I open the hood and start sniffing around I think it is coming from the passenger side (north america) rear of the engine. Hard to tell..I get light headed after a few deepsniffs..

It has been there for ages... not a new problem. I thought it might have been the foam pieces under the intakeso I took them out a year ago.... and no change.
It really smells like hot engine oil, but there is never any smoke
For a while I was thinking it was from oil spilled onthe front bank headers during oil changes(not sure how to avoid this). but I am fairly sure that is not the problem. It just does not smell at the front of the engine.

is there any typical oil leak that happens at the rear bank? I guess I need a mirror and a light to take a look, but the bottom of the engine is dry as a bone.

 

I guess i need to pull the rear one off... it is just too hard to see what is going on back there.

On a fun note.. it is snowing here.. 9:25 pm.. about 5 inches on the ground.. and no plowing yet.. so the city is a playground.
I just did a few laps of a big parking lot nearby, There was a car parked in the corner... and after several drifts in front of it.. I noticed a young couple in there staring at me.. hahah a little excitement to add to their little make out session.. and it is just amazing how much fun it is doing drifts in an X-type.. (dsc off) equally amazing is how well the dsc works when it is on.
Cant overcome Sir Isaac Newton's basics .. but finding the limit is fun and reasonably safe.

 

both the first two should be visible as wet on the oil pan?
I think I will jump to #3...

need to round up spark plugs while I am at it.
FJT do you have a plug number for me to find?

 

I got the plugs at a ford dealer for 11 dollars each. the discount places could get them for 8 each.. but no stock.

I pulled the intake manifold, and the rear valve cover, cleaned up everything, there may have been some slight weepage of oil on the cam cover. I re-used the original gasket, with a light smear of silicone all the way around. I also took the IMT o-rings out (those are the 2" ones?) and cleaned and then re-sealed them also.

Changed all the plugs. the old ones were the outdated plug number, ( 5 of them and 1 of the new type. History shows plugs changed at 112k km, I am now at 184k km - seems fishy that onlyone of them plugswas the newer type. None of them seemed to have much wear or dirt, and gap on old plugs was in spec.

Anyway car is back together. I drove it around the block, and not smelly yet. Took me about 3.5 hours to do it all.

I'll report back if it smells after my 200k trip to toronto tomorrow.

 

I bought AGSF 22FSM From a local Ford dealer.
I went to a few other places that could not cross reference ford parts.. _ strange but that is what they said.
When I went to the Ford dealer parts counter... I first asked " does this look like a ford part number?"
The guy said yes.. and found them right away.

I checked the gaps were all set at 1.35mm that is right were it should be.

 

Hello, some times I saw a small leak from the RH half shaft seal, this one, is mounted on the transfer case, that holds the transmission oil, and if leak, the oil drops in to the exhaust pipe, and bourns, and this smell enter to your car from the pollen filter, mounted on the RH, that’s why maybe you can’t see a leak in the flour of your garage.
You don’t need lift the car to see if is leaking, usually if you turn the steering to the left side, you can see this seal, and if is leaking.
Other leak that I saw is from the rear bank, the head gasket faults and has a small leak behind the engine and also the oil is dropped in the exhaust pipe.

I hope this helps you.