front right side oil leak, seal questions

[ksingltn]

I have a really bad oil leak somewhere on the right side of my engine. It initially appeared to be coming from the fuel pump mount, but I replaced the mechanical lift pump with a facet pump, and got the plate and engine very clean and sealed it off. It slowed the leak a little, so that was definitely a source, but I still lost 2+ qts in 400 miles. The timing cover seeps a little, but not enough to cause that much loss. Its definitely not the valve covers, resealed those a year ago and they are boringly dry.

Do these engines develop HG oil leaks? Also, front main seal with the engine in the truck? Doable?

I know the best way to figure it out is to clean it thoroughly and check, but I'm currently 1200 miles from it, and looking for ideas.

 

[79jasper]

Hg can leak oil, iirc.
I had one that leaked a bit when I first got it. After driving it a bit, the leak stopped.
Sold the engine to my brother for his 93 and put the banks sidewinder on it, blew the hg's in a few weeks.


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[icanfixall]

My guess is the cover plate is leaking where the mechanical lift pump was. There is a small area at the top of the block opening thats not machined smooth. Some big block chevy block off plates ride up on that and you have a horrible oil leak. Using lots of RTV on the seal will stop the leak or just grind some of the top off the block off plate. The front main can be done with the engine in the truck easily. You will need a harmonic balancer puller installer. All the belts needs to come off if you have a V belt system. the crank pulley needs to come off. The bolt hex is 15/16 size. Be sure to torque that bolt down to spec and use some RTV on the keyway end. If you don't use RTV you will have an oil leak and it gets really messy there. The oil gets thrown everywhere.

 

[ksingltn]

Sorry, reread my post and kinda unclear.
The oil leak was really bad with the mech. fuel pump. When I pulled the mech. pump, it had a bunch of RTV caked up on the remnants of a gasket, so I think the PO slapped some RTV on a replacement pump and threw it in there without cleaning the block. After the facet and blockoff plate install, the oil leak subsided a little, so it was leaking from there, but I do not believe it is any longer.

I still have a severe oil leak however, which is why I am looking at the front main and (sure hope not) the head gasket.

 

[icanfixall]

Sorry to say this but cleaning the engine is the best way to find a leak. What you can do is clean off an area above where you think the leak is coming from. then move down till you find the area of the leak. Hopefully its not way at the bottom of the engine. These engines have a gasket on both sides of the timing gear cover up front. Generally speaking this area never leaks but anything can be a possibility too. If the engine is really dirty where the mechanical pump was and wet looking you might look at replacing that short rubber hose from the frame to the hard line that feeds fuel to the filter. Many times that rubber fuel line cracks and sucks in air causing all kinds of hell. But in your case with a electrical pump pushing fuel pressure on that hose a leak can spray fuel on a greasy engine and make it look like and oil leak too.

 

[ksingltn]

I got rid of all the factory fuel lines, I mounted my facet carrier pump by the battery tray, and basically followed the write up instructions. I have a front main seal on the way to the house, gonna change that and see where we are on oil leaks. I really hope its not the oil pan, cause I really don't want to have to pull the engine to do that right.

 

[icanfixall]

Well has the oil pan ever been removed by you or someone else. If it has a rubber or cork gasket then someone installed a gasket. thats a no no item. the factory got away with justan RTV and it held very well. We only recommend RTV for the oil pan gasket. nothing else. A gasket maker will throw one in the kit to make money. No other reason. Many gasket sets have "extra gaskets" in them. Usually we find van and truck oil cooler to block header gaskets in kits but we don't use both on the same application. Its cheaper for the company to include them both than it is to carry 2 different gasket sets.

 

[riotwarrior]

If you are leaking that bad, go get it steam/pressure washer cleaned off something super good at a truck wash, pay if you have to have someone do it but get it done and then you'll see where the leak comes from....

Simple enough for ya to do and makes working on it much nicer too, less toxic

 

[icanfixall]

If you can take a pic of it and post it here we may be able to see whats going on.