Rear Main Seal - changing it w/ engine in car - Advice Please?!?

[oz]

I have finally accepted the fact that the rubber rear main seal on my freshly rebuilt 302 is leaking and that I must change it (before I change the clutch ). Can anyone give me suggestions, advice, tricks on the best way to do this with the least amount of pain?

I do have a hoist so lifting the engine out of the mounts is possible. How should I support the engine while I do the job? I don't really trust the engine hoist for any long term lifting... Will the pan come out if I lift the engine up to where it hits the firewall?
I also have power steering so the ram is under the pan...

Another issue - when i built the engine the new FelPro rubber rear seal was too long. When I installed it and tried to torque the rear main cap down the seal kept the cap from seating against the block. I ended up cutting a small amount of the seal off with a Dremmel cut-off wheel. What went wrong here??? Has anyone else had this issue? Did I just do something wrong???

THANK YOU!!!!

 

[milner351]

Plymouth Michigan! You're just up the road from me!

Too bad I'm going out of town tomorrow for 10 days, or we could put it up on my lift and have a look see.

I know I've had the pan off a 351w 69 cougar many times, the crossmember under the pan unbolts so you can drop the pan, I don't recall if this is possible in your car or not.

It sounds to me like you may have gotten the wrong seal.
I do recall in previous engine builds that the instructions with the seal advised to rotate the two seal halves so that the parting line of the seal was not aligned with the parting line of the block, so it made bolting on the rear main cap a bit tricky, but I never had one leak, I usually added a bit of rtv to the seal ends and made sure everything was clean and dry.

The modern 1 piece press in seals sure are nice huh?

Good luck with it, if you don't get it solved by the begining of May, let me know.

 

[oz]

milner351,
Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it. I have never noticed the crossmember being removable. I will surely check this out. Can I get the pan out without removing the crossmember? What if I lift the engine with a hoist???

I have built an engine or two before and so I did everything I knew to avoid this problem. I offset the seal, used rtv to seal the ends, etc. The fact that I had to trim the seal to make if fit really bothered me at the time. I guess I should have stopped what I was doing and got a replacement.

Is there any chance this is the oil plug behind the cam? The oil would all be in front of the bellhousing plate, correct?

I loosened the bottom of the bellhousing plate last night and put a couple of small rags in between the plate and the bellhousing. I will drive it a couple of times to see if I can tell where the oil is coming from.

 

[69Rcode_Mach1]

Oz the crossmember is removable, belive me it is very easy to get off. Don't bother messing with the engine you won't need to. Don't buy a sneaky pete. Get the pan off, then the cap, then just tap it out with a small hammer and punch, take good care to not nick the crank. Will come right out. Did you make sure to install the rear main so the lip faces the right way?

 

[oz]

69R,
So you're saying that if I remove the crossmember, drop the steering and loosen the starter to get it out of the way that I will be able to remove the pan without lifting the engine?
Also, how did you keep the pan end seals in place when you reinstalled the pan (can't remember if they'll 'stick' to the end caps or not)? I would think that getting the side gaskets and end gaskets lined up (tabs at ends) would be difficult... I was considering getting a 1 piece pan gasket instead of the standard 4 piece but that may actually make it harder. Did you use something to make the gasket stick to the pan or block when installing the pan to make it easier????
How hard is it to press the new seal in between the crank and block? Should I lube it up to make it go in or will it go in dry? I don't have to loosen the other main caps or anything crazy like that do I?

Yea, I know the seal is installed correctly. I suspect that my modification of the seal is what caused this problem. Perhaps I cut too much off or something. I still can't believe that the seal didn't fit right the first time.
...oh yea, I did take the locator pin for the rope seal out and filled the hole with silicone so that's not the problem.

The reason I ask about the cam oil plug leaking is because when I built the engine I installed it w/ some silicone sealer. Long story short, it was later reinstalled by the machinist when he trued up the cam bearings after I discovered that the cam didn't turn freely... I have no idea if he reused the plug or not.

 

[302 coupe]

definately switch to a 1 piece pan gasket, it will make reinstallation much easier. The 1 piece gasket comes with some plastic locating studs that hold the gasket in place, pop the pan on, replace the locating studs with the real bolts and you're good to go. And you don't have to worry about all the tabs and corners and all that stuff.

 

[69Rcode_Mach1]

Oz I replied to your PM. I forgot to add about the cam plug. First lets get this problem eliminated, and then we will tackle that one if this doesn't cure it.

 

[oz]

Yea, one problem at a time.
I'm really crossing my fingers that this solves the problem - until I have to address my oily clutch at least...

THANKS!

 

[rhyno9]

I didn't notice if you indicated whether you used sealant on the flywheel to crank bolts. I had oil coming from there because I forgot the sealant on the threads. Just something else to think about.

Good luck
RV

 

[BIG-MAC]

Did you make sure to install the rear main so the lip faces the right way?

For this reason I had to repair my main seal back in January...even worse I only had the top half reversed!

The one pc gasket is the way to go...though mine did not have the studs to hold it in place so I used a little adheaive sealant to hold it in place while I put the pan back on.

Its really easy to do...

 

[oz]

I am positive I put sealer on the flywheel bolts.

I got the crossmember off (w/ impact wrench), the steering out of the way, and took all but 4 pan bolts out last night... ran out of time to pull the pan though. I will tackle it this weekend.

Thanks.

 

[oz]

I got the job done. Not too big a deal. The hardest part was getting the old cork gasket and silicone off the bottom of the block.

Anyway, here's what the seal looked like when I took it out...

Perhaps I didn't put enough oil on it or something when I installed it because the lip is all frayed and coming off.