I am taking a closer look for my oil leak, and unfortunately it's not where I thought/hoped it was. I have posted a couple of related threads recently.
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=579392
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=578192
A brief history of the issue. My balancer went out (outer ring separated). When it did, the outer ring spun back and road against the timing cover. It gouged the water pump just a bit, and gound into the timing cover a bit too. But looking pretty closely it does not look like those gouges caused any cracks or failures.
The way the outer ring was riding, it didn't hit anything else where there is a seal, except it did hit the timing cover to oil pan joint. But it does not look like the oil pan was gouged, nor does the seal at that point appear to be compromised.
Well, I thought the issue was that i forgot to put silicone on the bolt that holds the balancer to the crank. In an earlier post, people here seemed to be split on whether that was necessary. Anyway, I had the car at the shop to get the cat-back welded up. And while they had it, I asked them to silicone the crank bolt. So they got that. And it still leaks.
When I looked under there today, there is oil everywhere. It sprayed around quite a bit. The balancer is wet. And then everything else near it, and plenty behind it (headers are soaked too). So I think it's got to be leaking onto the balancer and that is spraying it all over.
My guess would be that either the oil pan to timing cover seal is messed up, or that the main seal (crank to front of block) is bad.
Any ideas, or any thoughts on the best way to narrow it down and attack this issue?
Thanks.
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=579392
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=578192
A brief history of the issue. My balancer went out (outer ring separated). When it did, the outer ring spun back and road against the timing cover. It gouged the water pump just a bit, and gound into the timing cover a bit too. But looking pretty closely it does not look like those gouges caused any cracks or failures.
The way the outer ring was riding, it didn't hit anything else where there is a seal, except it did hit the timing cover to oil pan joint. But it does not look like the oil pan was gouged, nor does the seal at that point appear to be compromised.
Well, I thought the issue was that i forgot to put silicone on the bolt that holds the balancer to the crank. In an earlier post, people here seemed to be split on whether that was necessary. Anyway, I had the car at the shop to get the cat-back welded up. And while they had it, I asked them to silicone the crank bolt. So they got that. And it still leaks.
When I looked under there today, there is oil everywhere. It sprayed around quite a bit. The balancer is wet. And then everything else near it, and plenty behind it (headers are soaked too). So I think it's got to be leaking onto the balancer and that is spraying it all over.
My guess would be that either the oil pan to timing cover seal is messed up, or that the main seal (crank to front of block) is bad.
Any ideas, or any thoughts on the best way to narrow it down and attack this issue?
Thanks.