I posted last week about options on transmissions for my 62 lwb chevy pickup. I finished it last June, have driven it 1500 miles and while it has the original 261 and sm420 w/ a change in greaing to 3.38, I'm not happy with that granny. While I'm looking at my auto/standard options, I went ahead and pulled the trans, clutch and flywheel. What I suspected but didn't want to see was my rear main leaking. I can't tell you how carefully I put that thing together! My son and I justed finished a poly 318 for his 65 dodge and it's so tight it's starting to rust! Other oil weeping issues are from the rocker cover, around the head to block area and past the threads at the bottom of the timing cover/front support. The rear main had achoice of neoprene or rope seal when I was building it and I put in the neoprene. I still have the rope seal. While the pan is down, I will address the oil passing by those threads, but what is the sure fire way to make that rear seal SEAL?? I have asked my machinist who has been around for a while about the oil around the head/block seal and he thinks it may be wicking down from the valve cover seal, Any tricks here as well? I want this thing as dry as it can be so if I reinstall a standard, the clutch won't suffer. Thanks for your input.
