Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Bloody OIL LEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just installed a fresh 250. During the cam break-in it puked about an ounce of oil out the bottom of the bellhousing at the flywheel cover. Put a pan under the bellhousing and kept the cam break-in going without stopping.
After 20 mimutes, shut it off, and decided I had to pull the engine.
Got it out, upside down, and slowly with two sets of eyes pulled the pan. It appeared the leak was coming from one side of the pan gasket where it takes a 90 off the main cap. Found a small lip on the main cap, both sides, that looked like it could creat some difficulty for the neoprene gasket material to mold around.
I'd put the gaskets on first time without sealants, and decided to use some this time. Installed new gaskets, used some sealant where the block/cap parting line was, and a bit where the cork/neoprene gaskets overlap for a bit of insurance.
Drove it about 70 miles yesterday, and the belhousing, tranny, are just covered in oil. DRIPPING.

I'm really bummed. The leak probably isn't worse than the old worn out engine's was, but it had valve cover/side cover issues, as well as worn rear main and seal. I've got a 7 day tour coming up on the 15th and I can't figure wheither to "do-over" again, get it broke in and just stick oil in it and leave marks till I get back, or what. I can't even figure out the "why". Cam plug was dry, oil plug was dry, so it comes down to my screw up on the pan, or rear seal.

Is the rubber end seal the right thickness?

Perhaps for the short term, if you degrease everything and smear a bead of sealer along the pan edge, you can stop it from leaking??

Did you snug the pan bolts or tighten them too much? If they are torqued un evenly or too tight. it may have "Squeezed the gasket out and leak at that point.

RapRap
1940 ChoppedChevyCoupe

The leak is either the pan gasket at the rear main, or the rear main seal itself. I assumed the first leak to be "my" problem and was very careful in the inspection and reassembly.

It's hard to define the exact location, the back of the pan, front of inspection cover, and out of the bell housing are all wet.

Jack it up, take off the covers, clean it, run it and watch. Based on your description, it won't take long to determine exactly where its coming from. There is a dye that you can use to help trace leaks, but the above senario should be good enough.

The way I have always found sneaky leaks fast is to clean the area well and then blow some talcum powder on the area in question. The powder residue will show the leak origin immediately, before it has a chance to spread and confuse you.

Good luck.

That is a freakin' brilliant idea!!

I appreciate the ideas. I've found it difficult with the limited space and a flywheel buzzing past my face, to really see where the leak is actually coming from. My 65 year old eyes don't help much as this is a really bad focal range for me. I may have to go to the dye.

Is that just color, or black light?

The leak check dye is a blacklight deal. Some of the more affordable kits come with a small LED penlight (kinda) that works. I have seen it (the dye) work, but have not used it myself. IIRC NAPA has it (I'm sure most of the FLAPS have it).

You don't need to be under there with it running. Just clean it up real good and then run it for however long you think it needs to to develop a leak. Then shut it off, give it a few minutes, then take a look. Use a small mirror and a flashlight if you have too. If you are having trouble seeing, try getting somebody to help you out that can.
The dye and blacklight penlight are what I used on my truck when I was having some leak issues. I want to say the light was $12 and the dye was $6 from Carquest. The dye isn't real bright, so you don't really want to be checking it out in bright sunlight, for example.

Greybeard,
I know this isn't directly related to your oil leak problem, but Bruce Sackron, Carl Swanson, and myself are all going to be at Firebird this weekend for the Oldies drags on Sunday, June 8th. Bruce is running a '63 Nova with a 250 in it, so maybe between the 3 of us we can figure out something to fix your 250. And if nothing else, taking a break sometimes helps to figure out a solution to a problem. We're also trying to put an Idaho chapter of Inliners together, so we'd like to meet anyone who is a six cylinder fan. You can call me at (208) 362-7655 if you'd like to.

Thanks for asking.

I'd really like to be at Firebird Sunday, but I've got some thrash to do Sunday.

Took the Elco out for some more miles yesterday, and problems just kept cropping up. Besides the oil leak that looks worse than it is according to the dipstick, the engine develped a surge when in overdrive. Sounds good when in conventional, but in overdrive it isn't very happy a lower RPM, low load, so I'm pulling the carb and going through it.

The speedo quit on me at nearly the same time. I had pulled the cable and oiled it while working on this thing, and saw no problems, and it worked for about 200 miles.

On the way Home after the speedo started making noise and bouncing all over, the charging system failed. Second time in days. First, the idiot light came on with the key off. Changed voltage reg and the light wouldn't come on at all. Traded alternators and everything was fine and then "hello".

I must have peeced off the Gods ...........

I'd like to meet you and your friends, and I'd like to be part of an Idaho Chapter as well if you get to that point.

Thanks for the invite. Mike Mantle 208-722-4097