Unfortunately my x19 is turning out to be the money pit. I did the struts, brakes, calipers, lines and now after I am able to drive it, it appears to have a fluid leak by the inspection cover by the mounting bracket of the flywheel. I really cant tell if it is oil or differential fluid. I open the differenttial fluid and it is still open and I cant really tell if it is oil. When running the engine at idle it does not appears to leak. It must happen when driving. It is a definite leak and I noticed a small round area where the fluid dispurses under the engine. Today I noticed it by finding a few drops on the bottom of the two bolt that bolt the tranny/engine mount to the chassis. I took this bracket off and that is when I discovered it gives access to the plate that you can bend open where you see the flywheel. Any thoughts will be greatly apprecaited. On top of all of this the starter is failing and I need a master cylinder. I am trying to figure out if I should cut my losses and sell it now or fix the leak but I am worried it may be a very big project. Thank you.

I would need a clearer description of where the oil is pooling to be able to identify any point where it is leaking. You can tell if it is engine oil or transmission oil just by smelling it. Engine oil will smell slightly burnt but slightly aromatic while transmission oil will smell like it has been raised out of a pit of hell - in short it stinks.

Sadly this sort of thing is going to be part and parcel of ownership. These cars are all over 25 years old, most over 30 and come from a time where engine oil leaks were fairly standard even on new cars.

On top of this wear and tear on every single component in the car either from time or use is going to be significant but once a job is done it should stay that way for another 20 years. This is the nature of classic car ownership and you have to budget for ongoing repairs every year, it is simply the nature of the beast. There really is no such thing as a "cheap" classic.

Lucas makes a stop leak/transmission addaditive that works in manual and automatic transmissions. Do you think it is safe to use in the X19? I currently have MT90 in the unit - must be a little low from the dripping and there is probably space to put 1 container of the Lucas. I just dont want to harm the differential and I know that EP fluids will do just that. I sent an email to Lusas but have not received a response. Any input will be greatly apprecaited. Thank you.

The MT90 is classed as an EP oil but is most definitely *not* an EP oil in terms of chemistry. It just meets the same standards from a completely different direction.

The Lucas oils products that we get here are the only non-EP oils I can get off-the-shelf but they are specifically non-EP.

The Engine-stop-leak they produce does not have an EP rated oil in it - you really wouldn't want anything like that in your engine anyway. The transmission fix likewise does not contain anything you would describe as an EP rated oil and should be compatible with all manual-shift gearboxes and transmissions.

MT90 smells better than most gearbox oils but it still stinks. I would get a sniff of any leaking oil before venturing off to get additives.

There are only 3 points where a leak is likely to show as you've described it.
1) The gearbox input shaft seal is worn and leaking - in which case will find a fair amount of oil inside the bellhousing and coating it everywhere (most likely you would find the clutch juddering a lot too).
2) The engine crank seal is worn and leaking - this tends to keep itself on the right side of the flywheel and only really leaks down the side of the block with a little spray elsewhere unless it is a big leak in which case it gets much messier
3) The cylinder head has a leak (or the cambox or the cam cover) but you would see the trail of oil going down the side of the block and it would be pretty easy to spot too!

Thank you very much for the input on what to look for. The clutch works perfect - no chatter. The leak does not appear to be major and I discovered it after the car was stopped and sitting. After a day you find a small ring of fluid but unfortunately both of the fluids are new and I really cant tell by the smell or drop in fluid level. I also discovered drops lingering off the bolts connecting the inspection cover to the cross member that connects to the tranny/engine to the chassis. I hope it isnt the rear main seal and I am tempted to put some lucas into the engine oil and differential and to drive it around. I am so close to making this a daily driver and want to use it for a couple of months and I really did not want to take it out of service while I dropped the tranny. Any other thoughts? Please let me know and once again thank you very much for taking the time to read my post. Take care.

If you can't tell from the smell of the oil then it is almost definitely engine oil - seriously you can't fail to notice the smell of gearbox oil!

Rather than just jumping the gun and putting leakfix into both engine and gearbox I would do the engine first and see if it makes a difference. If after a few days it is still doing it then try the gearbox option as well. If you do both at the same time you'll never know which one started it!

Good luck!