fired the 83 d-150 motor in chassy last spring,, went OK with the exception of an oil leak at the rear of the motor. Did the engine run in "in chassy" Getting the frame-body back soon, wondering if I need to pull the motor and go back through the lower end sealing..

here are photos of the engine start / cam run in..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13718356@N ... 012529814/

I believe that I got the oil gally and rear cam plugs in correct,, here are re-creation photos of how I put the rear seal in,,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13718356@N ... 957530930/
did it so the 'gap' faces in to the crank case,, guessing that the crank pressure would blow the lip seal out and prevent leakage.... is that right..?
one ( maybe two ) things I did not do was use the two plastic sleeves,, they were not mentioned in the FSM or Doc's slant six forum postings, that I saw.
maybe I could drop the pan, remove the rear main seal carrier bolts and put in the plastic sleeves, seems like a long shot,, or is it?

thanks



asking as during the 20 minute cam run in, got enough oil leakage at the rear to puddle the floor,,
considering pulling the motor, and pan, don't want to do that,, but don't want an oil leak either,, any suggestions or guesses

mainly, did I position the rear seal right, with the seal concave groove in towards the crankcase?
are the plastic bolt sleeves that critical?
thanks
DT

I couldn't access your pic of rear seal, flat side of seal should face in towards engine, sloped side facing out

Yes, the seal lip points towards the oil. Crankcase pressure is under the lip forcing it into more intimate contact with the crankshaft. My experience is that more often than not a leak which produces a puddle comes from up top rather than the main seal.

Trying to view your photo:

This page is private.

Oops! You don't have permission to view this page.

_________________
Joshua

fixed the permissions settings,, should be viewable

in the photos, the yellow post it note is slid into the groove, and I installed the seal with the groove towards the inside of the crank case.
is that right?

I did not install the plastic sleeves on the bolts that hold the rear seal carrier in. They came with the complete Fel Pro engine gasket kit, I did not know what they were, my OE 1983 slant motor did not have plastic sleeves on the main seal carrier bolts. I did some topic searching here and found a post that mentioned the sleeves are intended to stop oil from leaking around the threads of the seal carrier bolts, but some slant six folks don't use the sleeves, but do put sealant under the bolt heads.
I did neither..

the oil that leaked was a small puddle,, probably more of a large drop.
I had removed the bottom sheet metal cover from the bell housing ( manual tranny) and looked with a flash light. I could see that the inside of the bell housing was covered with an oil film. The inside of the bell housing was clean, shinny and dry when assembled. So it appears where ever the oil is coming from, it is getting to the crank flange and getting spun around.

1) so did I position the seal correctly?
2) anyone think the missing sleeves is the cause?
3) any other ideas?

thanks

From what I could tell yes
Yes
No

MHO of course.

_________________
MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

I have what seems like the same oil leak, used the sleeves and the seal is correct. I believei its the rear of the oil pan and the windage from the flexplate torque converter causes oil spray in bell housing. I plan on pulling motor when i do the transmission to check and fix, its very annoying.

Now that I think about it, the first time I put my motor together I had the same type of leak, I had to pull my clutch because of a problem with it, so while I had that out I loosened the oil pan bolts removing the rear most ones, dropped the back of the pan down and put a SMALL bead of orange silicone between the pan and rubber seal, that took care of the leak. Did you off set the ends of the seals as per Dougs article in the article section?

Kielbase and Supercharged,, and everyone else,,thanks for your thoughts,,

yes, I did off set the ends,, but I did put a light coating of RTV sealant on the ends, although the FSM says not to,,,

I would have pulled the motor while still in chassy, however the guy doing the body was calling daily to get the chassy back,, so I shipped it back,,ASAP,, then the damn thing sat for 4 months,, but what the heck, the shop owner heading the project happened to fall down a stairway and break a wrist,, ouch,, so things happen,, one of those deals,, the truck is coming home this weekend,, I'll be pulling the motor and seeing what I find

Got the D-150 back from the paint shop yesterday,, was not looking forward to this task,, today I pulled the motor to check out the rear oil leak,, found last May when I ran the cam in..

when I removed the bell housing,, on the rear of the case,,found readily visible traces of oil along the right side only,, it was wet with oil immediately above the rear oil gally plug and about a swath a couple inches wide below the oil gally plug to the bottom of the case..

the rear seal and oil pan flanges were dry.

I took an allen wrench, put a 6 inch piece of pipe on it and without much effort broke the rear gally plug loose.. I remember when I took out the OE plugs, I had to heat them with a torch and even then it took a lot of effort.

The shop doing the machine work installed the galley and cup plugs,, looks like they used a thick sealant on the threads. When the plugs were screwed in the sealant all ended up on the top thread..

I think loctite thread locker is the corect sealant to use on the galley plugs,, Is that right?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13718356@N ... 045982124/

I used orange hi temp silicone on mine with no leaks, that is what my machine shop used on all his engines

Yes it (loctite brand of sealant/lockers) will be fine. I used to work as a service tech for a forklift place and we used a loctite that was green in color (cant remember its no.) and an earlier search didnt turn it up either. Found a Couple/3 of different ones but they are white in color... Choose your poisoni suppose. (this isnt the loctite site) 545 or 565... you need more of a SEALER more than a locker...

_________________
MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

got a new rear galley plug and used Permatex PX 59214 high temp thread sealant. 'seals tapered metal pipe threads agains leaks, vibration and shock,, 400 F max temperature.'
also ran the plug in a about another 3/4 of a turn, from where it was before. I believe I found the source of the leak,, it was a pain to take the motor back out,, but I'm glad I did.

I may have the same leak. I started with a remanufactured engine, I have an inexplicable oil leak. Pulled the bell housing lower cover, seems to be dry in there, but oil is dripping from the bottom of the cover, however it was wet with oil near the top bolt (starter side) of the cover on the inside, and also seemed to be wet on the other side, near outer edge of cover. My valve pan was leaking, changed the seal, that is now dry, but I still see oil on the bottom of the tranny near the cover plate, so I'm guessing it's from the galley plugs? Driving me crazy, hate oil leaks...

Thoughts? Hate to pull the engine, but....

67 Dart 270

since tightening up the rear galley plug, I have the motor back in, however I have been busy putting the rest of the D-150 back together and have not taken the time to finish all the motor hook ups and re start it and see if I really got the oil leak fixed,, I am confident that I did as once the motor was out, flywheel out of the way... I could clearly see an oil track from the rear galley plug down.
I had only ran the motor like 20 minutes or so to break the cam in,, if you have put some miles on the motor, the flywheel may have spun the leakage around, may explain why you see oil on the starter side,, which is opposite the gally side,, however with out diving in, it's all a guess.
good luck,

Thanks, I'll crawl under there today and take a closer look, pull the cover plate. Can you seen the galley plug from there?

I was told the rope seal was the best rear seal, especially for rebuilt engines since the fit is a bit looser on the pan side from the milling rework of the bearing surfaces, but my mechanic didn't want to void the warranty of the engine rebuilder so he kept the rubber seals the remanufacturer installed. That said, I don't see any oil coming from rear main area, appears dry when I swipe my finger in there with the cover off....yes, the oil on the starter side made me scratch my head a bit..I hate oil leaks.

BTW, your set up looks awesome, I like the black engine with silver pipes/intake. Mine is red with red intake and black exhaust manifolds.

brian