I recently changed the head gasket and had my cylinder head rebuilt on my om617. After cleaning the front of the block as best as I could and replacing my vacuum pump gasket I have fresh oil all over the front of the block from under the cylinder head and down. Its wet near the front crank seal, and the front of the oil pan. There is wet oil under the lip between the block and head. Do you think this oil is coming from the new head gasket or could it be blown this far up from the fan if its a front crank seal leak?

In general you degrease the suspected areas and drive the vehicle and eventually stop the engine and look and see if you can see where the leak is coming from.

The other method is to stop the engine and let the Engine cool down so that you can feel for the oil leaking area with you your fingers.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Oil from the front crank seal will fling pretty far from its originating location, I wouldn't be surprised if this was your problem.