Source of oil leak?

[electrik20]

My '99 GSX leaks alot of oil, drips on my exhaust and smells like burning oil. I am not the most technical person with cars, but I was looking under my car today and found this:



Could this be the source of my oil leak? Also, what is this part and how hard is it to replace, if in fact it is broken? I had me neighbor look at it before I found this discovery and he thought it might be the Oil Pan Gasket. Any thoughts?

[tarantula]

It can be a whole lot of things. Oil pan is a possibility. From the factory there is no gasket for the oil pan. It is siliconed in place with OEM grey.
Now if its not your oil pan than the leak could be behind the timing belt cover. And behind the cover is the front main oil seal (crankshaft seal) To me that would be my first guess.) Than theres oil pump sprocket seal on the oul pump housing. It also could be cam seals leaking all the way down.
My point is you have to get into it to find the leak. From just looking at those pics, no one can positively idetify the source of your leak.

Also if thats the only place where you are leaking from, how is it reaching your exhaust. Check elsewhere for the oil leak that touches your exhaust.