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Oil should stay IN the engine right?


theNomad

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Took the car for a spirited drive two weeks ago, before leaving on a long holiday, and it was (nearly) great. Ran it to high rpm, started, stopped, curvy roads, up at highway speeds. 

The Weber 38/38 seemed tuned well enough, may try a smaller idle jet, and only noticeable issue was a rising idle level. 

Biggest issue though. After driving and not noticing anything odd for a few hours, I pull into the driveway to notice a nice drip line and pool of oil. It left a pancake sized oil puddle after just parking and shutting it down. Oil is dribbling when it's running so I figured it's the pressure. Looks like its coming from the bell-housing area and didn't smell particularly like gear oil. Had to leave it so now I'm able to address it.

No oil seen around the dizzy. The center drag link is soaked and dripping. I'll open the flywheel inspection cover tomorrow, but I'm assuming it's the rear main seal. 

I'm hoping its the oil pan but we shall see. 

And here I thought I was going to be able to install a new exhaust and let her rip....

 

So how bad is this going to be? Never done this before and wondering if I'll be ok leaving the engine in or I would be best going full bore and pulling the engine and just using the "engine gasket set" I have.

Edited by theNomad
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If you've already got the process down for pulling the gearbox with the engine in the car, that method would be my suggestion.

 

Upon confirming it's engine oil and not the pan gasket, there are two leak possibilies back there: The rear main seal (or, possibly, the seal cover) or the oil galley plug. The rear seal can be removed by punching holes in it with a sharp awl or drilling small holes (2 or 3 locations) in the metal portion of the seal, inserting sheet metal screws and pulling it out with pliers, etc. I have a plastic plumbing piece which I use to install the new seal a little deeper in the cover (get in touch if you'd like to use that). A leak at the oil galley plug would be obvious.

 

Add: If the clutch disc is soaked in oil, consider replacing it. And give the pressure plate a good cleaning to prevent re-oiling the new disc. -KB

 

 

83-seal-removed.jpg

Edited by kbmb02
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Thanks. I haven't pulled the gearbox from the car yet, but it seems I'll be heading down that road shortly. 

It went from no leaking oil to a gusher so I hope it's obvious and fairly easy. I agree the clutch would probably need replacing as well. Tight budget now...

If the trans is out I may have to replace its seals as well. 

Ah scope creep. 

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Make TREBLE sure it's not coming from above....  or as Ken says, the oil pan.

 

Don't be too hasty to throw out the clutch- the flywheel deflects oil from things, by design...

...do be critical of the finish of the oil sealing surface on the crank.

 

I've never had a rear main start leaking suddenly.  Wonder what you'll find....

"I learn best through painful, expensive experience, so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth." MattL

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OK. So under the inspection plate the flywheel is basically clean. I don't see wetness or a trail of oil etc. The oil pan is dirty and moist but not dripping. Engine and bell housing outside is wet and had a few oil drops hanging. I did see wet oil on my hand from a part of the distributor when I "Treble" checked it. Will order a distributor O-ring, hopefully its the very sneaky culprit!

 

The sudden fast drip oil leak didn't start right away when I moved the car around to put it on ramps today, but oil was evident. Unfortunately no clear trail. Tough to track!

 

Also, the transmission has fresh oil on the rear and a very slow drip from the drain plug and an adjacent bolt on the rear. The bottom of the trans is wet. 

So adding seals on the trans may be in the future.

 

 

I'll need to really clean it down and start the step by step checks to really nail it down after the dizzy o-ring. Thanks for the advice!

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Well, I suppose you'd feel like a BASS if you dropped the trans... only to find the oil trail leading down from the distributor!

 

Or worse, the oil pressure sender...

 

(heh?)

 

t

 

"I learn best through painful, expensive experience, so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth." MattL

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As Toby suggested, carefully check the oil pressure sender.  They've been known to start suddenly leaking--a lot--and if you're unlucky and the failure is catastrophic, they can allow most of your engine oil to escape in a couple of minutes at highway speeds.  Both the OEM warning light senders and the larger VDO ones for aftermarket oil pressure gauges have been known to fail.  

 

Check it out.

 

mike

 

 

'69 Nevada sunroof-Wolfgang-bought new
'73 Sahara sunroof-Ludwig-since '78
'91 Brillantrot 318is sunroof-Georg Friederich 
Fiat Topolini (Benito & Luigi), Renault 4CVs (Anatole, Lucky Pierre, Brigette) & Kermit, the Bugeye Sprite

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Just bought all the stuff mentioned, by everyone... ha ha.

$10 is better than a rear main seal for now. We shall see. 

 

Still have a weepy transmission but all in good time.

 

I really enjoyed driving it and am hoping this Fall will be epic (too dang hot for no A/C!)

Edited by theNomad
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  • 2 weeks later...

Update time. 

I swapped in a new Distributor O-ring which looks like it's solved the bit of wetness I found. 

While under the car I drained and filled the transmission with Redline MTL. 

 

Old fluid looked golden but the drain plug was furry with metal. Looked at the old fluid and it looked like I was panning for gold... lots of bronze colored flakes...

I'm not too happy about that. 

 

I fired the car up today and sure enough, after a few minutes there was a good dribble of oil under the car. It's the pinkish MTL.

 

So now at least I know my manual trans is the culprit. Thanks for all the good advice. I now have the unglamorous task of changing all the seals in the trans. 

 

"While you're in there..." ugh

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  • 3 weeks later...

After ordering parts (rear seal, speedo seal, new backup switch)  and then not having time to install them I got around to looking it over today. These parts have small drops accumulating on them but I decided to do one more check to find the "flow" of oil.

 

I cleaned the trans with a rag, then drove it in the driveway which got the fluid dripping. I got under it and  and this is what I found:

Largest amount of fluid is coming from the clutch opening. (It is Redline MTL which helped me trace it due to the pink color) Some drops end up coming from the front bell housing lip. 


Now I'm thinking it really IS the front trans seal as well as the rear... Probably a full removal and get it on the bench deal eh?

 

 

20160905_150512.jpg

Edited by theNomad
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