F*&k, I think my brand new rear main seal is leaking!!

[cozye]

They stuck out a little. The oil pan will smash them down. I also do not use any gasket adhesive on the oil pan. When I took the pan off the second time, even with no extra adhesive, it was stuck on there like it was welded. I think those rubber seals shrink a bit over time. Usually gasket adhesive is just used to hold the gasket in place while installing.

[madkaw]

Well this sucks, I still have an oil leak. I now must suspect my pcv system. I did notice a slight seapage around my front seal also. I remember reeading one of Tony D's infamous posts about a pcv system that does not properly vent willl pressurize these engines to the point of leaking. I have also noticed that my motor seems more lethargic when under hard acceleration at higher rpms. I can't imagine what the issue would be since everything is fairly rebuilt or new, but i must check it out when i get home.

I tried searching pcv on this site and the search acts like it doesn't even recognize the term

[cozye]

Damn. Is it still leaking from the back corner?

[madkaw]

Honestly I was so pissed I didn't jack it back up to see exactly where it was coming from, but the puddle was in the same place. I am really leaning towards the pcv issue.

[cozye]

That should be easy to check, suck on the PVC valve and see if it's clogged. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Are you sure it's not the rear main seal? How much oil was it leaking? When it was the side seals on mine, it only leaked about a quarter sized spot a night, or a little more if I was running it a lot.

[madkaw]

Well my car has been apart for a while now for various things-which most importantly is replacing my head gasket. I am debating whether to pull my motor to attack this rear main seal leak.

Today I was looking at some videos I made of my car while driving. The oil pressure guage was visible in a lot of the videos and I noticed the guage was almost always right of center towards the middle of 45-90. So I am running a consistant 60lbs of pressure? I have read that the scale should be 10lbs per 1000rpms. This is not holding true for my car. If I am running 60lbs at 3000rpm, what am I running when I am near 6k? I know these guages are not the best and I am going to hook up a manual guage for when i am back on the road. I guess the question here is if the guage is correct, would this be too much for my seal?? I think I ordered the zx turbo pump when I put this car together and i messed with the pressure springs while experimenting with my spray bar and cam. So maybe I left the high pressure spring in there and i need to check this out. Looks like I need to search and refresh my memory on the springs and what a stock spring looks like.

[madkaw]

Well it's time for another attempt at fixing my oil leak. I have been truly cursed with this leak. I have replaced the rear main seal twice, the second time I used a speedi sleeve on the crank incase there was any bad spots. I have replaced the side seals also.

I think this is an excellent thread regarding this issue so I will continue my saga here.

Got under the car yesterday to find LOT'S of oil everywhere. Big reason was that one of my oil pump bolts was stripped and not holding enough torque to properly seal. I kind of knew that anyway, but blew it off until winter.

I pulled the oil pan because I can only assume after reading this thread, and any other thread on this issue, that the side seals are the culpit. The side seals were really tough coming out. I actually made my own puller to pull the main cap, but the cap only came out about a half inch and stopped dead. I didn't want to force the issue with the cap, but it was enough to grab on to the side seals. The side seals were the one piece type and looked symetrical. The reason I say symetrical is because I read about proper orientation of the "lips". These seals had lips on both sides, so I can't see how I could have screwed that up. Also noted was that they were left abit long, I didn't snip them off flush with the cap thinking the gasket and sealer would cover for that.

It took visegrips and a small prybar against the visegrips to pull these out.

It seems with all my research that folks have had success with both types of seals-imbedded nail type and 2 piece nail type. Some have use sealant, and some not. Some say you have to pull the cap, some don't.

Frankly, I am at a loss to what's going to work.

I thought the Nissan one piece seal was the answer before, but I don't think it is the seal as much as the application maybe?

What exactly is the sealant for? I have also read that some one that didn't want, or couldn't pull the cap injected some sealant into the slots of the cap before installing the seal. In other words, it was important to get sealant at the top of the seal?

Edited March 27, 2013 by madkaw

[madkaw]

Maybe this thread is too old to get any love, but I will continue on. I took some pics of the two types of side seals. I also hopefully demonstrated the correct way to insert the side seals.

I took a lot of time to clean everything out, especially the cavity for the side seals. It is now oil free and dirt free. I squirted brake cleaner up in the hole to get it sqeaky clean so any sealant I put on there will be more effective.

[Jeff G 78]

You didn't cut the excess off? That might have caused your leak. I've always stuffed them down and then trimmed the rest off. I've never had a leak.

One thing your pics don't show is the right way to insert the steel strips. The bevel needs to be such that the longest part is against the block and not against the rubber. If the sharp edge is towards the rubber, it can slice it. Good luck Steve!

[madkaw]

Sorry Jeff,

but I read your post and i can't picture what you are describing.I'm not understanding the beveled edge part.

I just shoved the seal and steel strip in the block part way to show and verify orientation-it is correct-- right????

[Jeff G 78]

Steve, the steel strips have a blunt end and a sharp end. The sharp end goes inwards, but if you look close, it is beveled like a wood chisel. Like a wood chisel, if you put the sharp edge towards the seal, it can slice into it. Instead, you face the sharp edge towards the iron block to protect the rubber seal. Does that make sense? I'll see if I can find a picture of one.

[madkaw]

I think I get it. I know one end is sharp,and there are two different sides to that sharp end. I guess I didn't even think about the beveled edge being a problem. So the side that has NOT been ground down is considered the sharp edge--so it should go against metal?? Trying to picture it as a chisel.