This leak stuff is getting old.

After driving car for a few hundred miles, it appears the lower corner of timing chain cover is leaking oil. I thought it was successfully sealed up after this winter's pulling engine to reseal the same. All gasket surfaces were meticulously cleaned, de-greased, fresh new gaskets installed, with blue silicone sealant slathered on surfaces of rubber wedges at intersection of cover and pan and allowed to set up. Pan and cover bolts were then torqued to spec and then re torqued two more times leading me to believe pan and cover had been successfully sealed. Engine was clean, and dry when re-installed.

The other day there was a small oil puddle under front of engine, after an inspection enough oil was found to have leaked and puddled along front lip of K member, and had migrated such that oil was now dripping from holes in K member, off of sway bar, front most oil pan bolt, and two lower timing cover bolts. Pan rail gaskets and rear main seal area does not seem to be leaking, just the two lower cover bolts. In other words, that rubber casket with the two wedges ain't doing its job. I think oil from timing cover gasket is blowing back on to first pan bolt on passenger's side of engine when car is driven, as well as onto K member.

I cleaned all oil from bolts, under side of K member and its nooks and crannies, and other areas that had any deposited motor oil thereon. Engine and K member cleaned of oil, then engine idled for half an hour at which time a second inspection was made confirming leak coming from lower rubber timing cover gasket.

What can be done to reseal cover gasket area short of pulling engine again which is a real PIA for a crummy 10 inch gasket located in a real nasty tight spot to work in?

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

I am lazy, but I have jad luck by (1) snugging the bolts down (2) wiping the exterior surface as clean as I can get it, and (3) smearing RTV sealant on the seam between the pan and the cover and the block. Doesn't look good, but it keeps the oil in.

Reed:


What kind'ah luck was that Reed?

I did lay down a bead of silicon along both sides of the thin connecting strip of rubber between wedges. I still have a lot of the blue silicon left, and plenty of purple de-greasing stuff.

Also after making initial post, and letting car sit all night, when I moved it out there was also a good size spot of oil from rear of engine so my valve cover is leaking. The funny thing is there seemed to be no oil along side of head and block to oil pan. I wiped those surfaces with fresh paper toweling, no fresh oil, just a little bit of blackish grunge. Maybe while engine is hot, that oil mostly runs off those surfaces leaving very little residue behind. More detective work is needed.

I used the rubberized cork gasket by Felpro. That stile gasket must be one use only, real handy for a guy trying different lash settings on a aftermarket cam. When I ordered gaskets there were no reusable rubber valve cover gaskets available. I have another new valve cover gasket around here, so I'll install it, and see what happens.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.

82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp

07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Jad luck. You know, better than bad, but not quite good?

In reality, my fingers are too fat for this keyboard and I often get typos when I type fast and I forget to go back and correct them. J is right next to H on the QWERTY layout....

just saw a real orange rubber style valve cover gasket on feebay earlier today.

That has happened to me a few times.

I usually clean the side if the block /pan rail/ timing cover real good with brake cleaner or thinner and smear the grey rtv on the side over the seams about 2 or 3 inches in both directions.


Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Yep, ditto!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Reed, I was pulling your chain.

Greg, would that be the German Shmaer?

Next two days it is raining with possible snow fall, so yard work cleaning up toppled trees, many large pine branches downed from the last snow fall and high winds a few days later. So I'm stuck inside, but it's a good thing for this old carcass to be laying on the floor, no heavy lifting, no frigging with my cantankerous chainsaw, and piling brush to be sealing up the slant.

Might even conduct a compression test and see where those numbers fall after the rebuild of 2019 and a few thousand miles of brake-in.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.

82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp

07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

No compression testing today.

I did discover a general seepage along passenger's side of oil pan gasket. Re-torquing afforded up to a half turn on each bolt both sides of pan.

A bit of coolant was found pooled on front pinch seam of K member under a skim of motor oil. No coolant leak to be found from hoses or water pump. Every possible surface on lower side of engine and K member have now been wiped down again, and coolant hose connections snugged up

Now it's wait and see what drips out of this engine.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.

82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp

07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Since last post car sat unused while awaiting a front end alignment this morning. The alignment is another story, long and short is the toe went out of speck after 500 miles of driving...

Today the Dart I now call Valdez went about 30 miles, parked in garage, came out three hours later, and a big puddle formed during that time under front of engine. Cleaned the mess up, ran engine for a bit, looked under at suspected timing cover, and no drips to be observed while engine was running.

Shut it down, and by the time I made it around car and under for a second look-see, oil was pouring out on to the floor from lower left corner of timing cover. It looks as if I have distorted the cover or crushed the gasket as there is now a small gap between the lowest bolt and the second bolt to right holding cover.

I'm going to have to pull the engine again to fix this GD leak. So much for religious use of torque wrench, fresh gaskets, and clean surfaces.

Checking the dip stick shows about 3/4 quart of oil has been lost in 220 miles due to this leak, and it's not burning it.

Once I get this engine out what must one do to seal it up for good?

The light came on....

Dr Dodge answered this question just now on page 100, "Sheet Metal Installation" in his book Slant Six Engines. His book arrived a few weeks ago, wish we had it in January.

One mistake was probably snugging up the pan too soon. What I did was bring the pan bolts up to around 150 in lbs, second round up to 200 in lbs, and a third again slowly to 200 in lbs. I will make sure front of oil pan and timing cover metal mate evenly or have an even gap before bolting them up. Other than that, the job went as Doc outlined.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.

82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp

07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

A couple of other things to check...
Make sure the front seal is doing it's job.
Make sure there is not a hole worn thru the T. cover. (yes, it happens)
DD

Front seal area behind harmonic balance is dry.

I saw no holes in timing cover, cover is dry except down at lower left bolt and along seam between oil pan. Rubber gasket along that lower area is deformed between lower two bolts. New timing set with 2500 miles on it, and rebuild.

I don't see any easy way to "successfully" install new pan and timing cover gaskets without pulling engine. Not looking forward to yanking that baby out after just a few hundred miles since the last removal.

Nice job on the book Doc.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.

82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp

07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Well finally I got around to pulling that leaking engine out of the Dart today. Last post was April 26, things have been rather discombobulated around here. My 98 yr old father passed 4/21, been dealing with the estate and that with the state, county, and town shut down. No hair cuts, no CPA office visits, lawyer office visits, no noth'in thanks to Corona 2020. I digress, sorry.

It appears leak was a result of one of the metal spacers embedded within the front rubber gasket punched through its egged out bolt hole. The other three bolt holes are ripe for the same thing to happen. This engine was used for drag racing for a number of years, and I suspect its pan has been off and on many times causing localized fatiguing aroung its front bolt holes.

I'm thinking by welding up those front four bolt holes restoring the oil pan's thickness, and re-drilling will solve the problem.

Anyone else had this problem? Is that a logical solution?

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.

82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp

07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

If I had no other choices I would try the weld and drill solution.

IF I could get another front cover, in good shape I would probably go in that direction.

Nothing against welding, but it would probably take me a try or two, to get it right, and that means the engine may need to be removed again... I am NOT that great a welder. Although I have successfully welded up a tank, it was easy to test for leaks. I guess that would be my tipping point. If the front cover can be tested for leaks with out re-installing the engine, then I would take that path, just for the sake of "saving" a timing cover..

Timing cover is fine, it's the oil pan that seems to have been beat on a few times too many. When I first got this car in '08 I contacted the guy that turned into a Drag Queen early 90's. He told me that he blew up five engines before he figured out how build one that would stay together. I'm guessing he went through a few oil pans

I did fill in the four egged out holes at front of pan and re drilled them this morning. If one places a strip of copper over back side of hole in steel, it is easy to fill in a nice flat bead of weld, and a quick grind down with 1/2" x 17" belt sander finishes the job. Locating the new holes was a little bit more challenging, as I lost my land marks. However, on the side where the copper was clamped it preserved all four faint markings from washers.

Mission creep: While I'm at it has struck. Oil pan has striped of several lairs of pealing paint, and rusty spots in preparation for a fresh coat.

This morning I inspected the failed gasket with the two triangular rubber ends, and found it had split in two places where the two lowest bolts pass through it into the timing cover.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.

82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp

07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC