So i've got this oil leak on my run-of-the-mill small block 350. Whenever i revv it up in neutral, it won't leak, but when i get a load (in gear) on the engine and give her gas, it will leak oil. Where? I'm not sure. It leaks from the back of the motor and off the sides. It looks like its coming from the distributor. Where can it be coming from? What gasket died? Any o-rings i should know about?

You have a gasket under the distributor where it mates to the top of the block-but it shouldn’t leak that bad....my bet is the "rear" valve cover gaskets. For some reason the SBC tends to leak at the back of the valve covers towards your firewall. I would take both your covers off and pull your distributor and replace both valve cover gaskets and the small distributor gasket all in one shot. Also look for an oil pressure sending unit, freeze plugs etc...remember to torque the gaskets to the required torque and not over torque them-this is an easy mistake and will slightly bend your valve covers causing some leaks-especially on the older 4 bolt hold downs on teh sides.

You can also buy some petroleum friendly die and put it in your crankcase that glows under a fluorescent light-its about $3 a bottle and you can see where you are leaking-just hit a backlight at night or shut the lights off in your shop/garage.

Mine was doing the same thing..it was my valve cover gaskets

Hey guys...we'll i've narrowed it down to the oil pressure sending unit. How do i fix/replace this? This is the oil leak that drains down the driver side.

The passenger side, I can't tell for sure. Its not coming from the distributor or valve covers, but it looks like its coming from between the block and the intake...is this possible? It *MAY* be coming from the oil pressure sender thing that causes the driver side leak. I'm thinking that it might be pooling on top and then channeling to the passenger side along the crease between the intake and block. Is it possible to leak from the intake/block gasket? Eitherway, my truck was just towed to the wheelin' spot, and my buddy is gonna fix it...but i might as well give him a heads up before he starts on it. My truck seems like it has *ALOT* of oil pressure. I wouldn't be having a problem, but when i swapped it in the smallblock, i put it really far back (cause thats what everyone says to do) so visibility is limited along the back of the motor.
Thnx guys.

It could leak from your intake gasket (bewteen the intake and block). If you can see where its leaking-you can try cleaning it up with ether or brake cleaner and squirt some high temp silicone in there. If your sending unit is leaking-take it out and inspect for cracks-replace if needed-get a role of PVC (white plumbing tape) and put a few wraps on the threads and re-insert.

If you intake gasket continues to leak-you will have to remove your intake/carb/dist and put a new set of them in-just make sure EVERYTHING is nice and clean-you only want to do that job once.

about how long will it take to do the intake? We'll be doing it in a parking lot.