I35 pesky engine oil leak on AC Compressor

[kimbo]

All,
I have a slow engine oil leak on the bottom of my I35 air conditioner compressor.. If I park car, the oil leaks about 5 drops per day onto floor, so the longer parked, the more the leak. I cleaned the bottom of compressor housing, restarted engine, and the oil slowly started leaking. I could see the drop forming on the bottom (see photo), but could not see the origin; I suspect oil is seeping down the mating surface of compressor housing halves from above (somewhere near alternator).

The oil leak is not near the oil filter / oil cooler/ or oil pressure sensor (those all looked dry). I recently changed both valve cover gaskets to fix this issue, but there was no change to oil leak. The front valve cover (above the alternator) does not appear to be leaking

Any ideas?

 

[kimbo]

valve cover leak

I decided to replace the front valve cover (nearest the radiator) gasket again, because this seemed like the most likely source of a leak. After removing most RTV from the head with a gasket scraper, I finished with scotch-brite scouring pads which worked great. Then with a new Fel-pro gasket (and the original Nissan valve cover) I was a lot more liberal with the RTV on the valve cover to head interface, adding about a 1/8" dia RTV bead. That did the trick, no more leak!