[JeffWVR4]

Have any of you ever run into a problem where a brand new Mitsubishi oil pump was actually warped such that it would not seal flatly against the block? I just rebuilt an engine and after it warms up, oil seems to be seeping out from the top of the oil pump slightly to the right. The oil then drips down into the valley under the timing belt and drips from the bottom of the timing cover, and some of it runs down the side of the pump and drips off the pan.

I gooped a buch of RTV over the joint between the pump and the block, and that seemed to have slowed down the leak a little, as it stopped dripping off the pan, but it may have increased the flow of oil down into the valley. Hard to tell.

Next I removed the pump, checked the gasket for foreign matter, and mated the pump against the block without a gasket to check for trueness, and all seemed well. But I did notice a little of the RTV had forced it's way between the pump and the gasket slightly on the right hand side. I put the pump back on and the oil is still leaking the same way. Although it's difficult to see, it doesn't appear that the oil is running down from higher up, and the only thing above it anyway is the water pump, which should not be causing oil leaks as far as I can tell. I've removed, checked, and re-installed the rear valve cover twice. All bolts are torqued to spec.

I'm stumped here. The only thing that would make any sense is a warped oil pump, but I've never heard of that happening before. And as I said, this is a brand new pump with 0 miles on it, and about 30 minutes of engine idle time. Is it likely that once the engine has some miles on it that this will clear up, or just get worse?

Has anybody ever had this problem?

Edit: If it makes any difference, this is a 93VR4 engine.