Oil Leak from top of engine

[msubully82]

My son has been away at school all summer, so just last night I got a chance to look over where the oil is coming from. It's a 2003 with 3.1L. The oil is coming down the front of the engine above the starter. I had hoped it was the oil pressure sender, but that does not appear to be it. The oil trail is further over towards the right, looking from the front. It doesn't look like the valve cover gasket either. It seems to be coming from the top of the engine on the right, coming down the side of the motor to the right of the cylinder head. It's hard to see because the area is crowded. What are the common places for oil to leak in this location? Intake gasket? Something else? There is virtually zero coolant being lost. Changed the oil, no coolant in oil. I thought the intake gaskets usually started leaking coolant first. Rate of leakage seems to be a little more than 1 quart per 1000 miles.

 

[LeadfootCJ7]

There is a oil pump drive that the o-ring gets old and oil will leak from. I had that happen on my 3.1 in my 94 Cutlass. It wasn't too hard to fix. I don't believe I had to remove nearly as much stuff as everyone on the internet swears is needed. This was the write up I used. http://www.v6z24.com/howto/oring

 

[daviddawg]

The last 3.1 I had there is a round plug on the top of block near the back on driver side that had to be changed every so often.Oil would puddle up on top of block and run down. I used to change it every 5 years. Was told it was in a place where the old distributer was put and Gm just put in a plug rather than change the mold. If this is your leak its a easy inexpensive fix.Good luck