When you get to pulling it apart let us know what you find, may give an insite to what went wrong when I did mine. I did mine with Felpro too. Did you offset the seals or did you put them in flush with the cap and block?



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

Randy.  Sure hate to hear that the oil leak is still there.  Here are some questions for you.  How did the seal surface on the crankshaft look?  Pitting on that crankshaft seal surface seems to crop up on engines that sit a lot and those pits can be a real problem with a neoprene seal.  Were you able to successfully remove all the old rope seal from the block side of the groove?  Any residual seal material there can also be a problem when putting a new seal in place.  Are you using the studs at the rear seal retainer for the oil pan retention or two bolts?  When you tear back into it, be sure to post anything you find that may be the contributing culprit.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Make sure it's not coming from the cam plug.


Lawrenceville, GA

Tell me where to look for the cam plug? Do I have to drop the pan? If it's not the cam plug, is the advice to wait and see what I find before purchasing a replacement seal? 

You don't have to drop the pan. It is on the back of the block, directly above the rear main. You might be able to see well enough in there with a flash light and mirror. The flywheel pretty well blocks it.

There are also two oil galley plugs on the lower driver side of the block which are also blocked by the flywheel. See if you can get a good view of those, too.


Lawrenceville, GA

Those replacing rope seal in car with neoprene seal should take note of Teds main points here, i have tried before here to also highlite those facts but seems the leaks persist. Ted mentions the 2 seal retainer studs, often these are replaced by bolts and DO have a tendancy to leak. My advice is dont take what seems a shortcut and go pull the engine, remove the crank and do it properly once, also good time for bearing inspection. My 2 cents worth.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

I'm pretty confident the rope seal came out cleanly. I was turning the crank pulley with one hand and pulling the screw I threaded in with the other. Once the rope started coming out, I put the vise grips on it and kept turning the crank. It slipped right out. I did not closely inspect the crank journal, but will relook when I go back in. What would be the recommended seal assuming the journal is pitted?

Randy

Wherre are you at in Maryland?

Oldmics/Glen Burnie

If you do have pitting at the crankshaft on the seal surface, then some form of rope seal will come closer to keeping the oil in place.  Here’s a picture of a 312 crankshaft with the aforementioned pitting.  This pitting simply just chews up a neoprene seal very quickly.

 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks for the picture, Ted. I hope to get back to the car this week. Second time around should go much easier.



Oldmics: I'm in Gaithersburg