OIL LEAK

[purg113]

I know it was posted here at one time but I cant find it now.
I have a small to mid size oil leak 2 qt a week.
it is dripping off the front of the trans and I cant remember the name of that seal at the rear of the engine.
the one hidden by the bellhousing so you need to move the trans to get to it.

Also if I have the cab off the truck do I still need to move the trans out of the way?

also Will this fit on my 93?
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...vday?itemIdentifier=797036_210676_10054_27741

it is for a 97 psd.

 

[C.J.]

The last time I thought my rear main seal was toast, it turned out to be an intake manifold gasket that was dripping down and appearing right where a rear main seal would leak from. I was pretty happy with that as opposed to a rear main seal.

 

[purg113]

will have to take a closer look when i get the cab off. thx

 

[icanfixall]

The seal your asking about is called the crank shaft rear main seal. To effectively repair it now Ford sells a seal with a speedi sleeve that fits over the worn crank flange. If you just install a seal and not the sleeve you will be doing it again. Some have tried to repair this without the speedi sleeve. It just wont work. The new seals are a completely differant material and they are a double lip seal that goes on dry. I may have one in my saved items from ebay... But as posted. Your oil leak could very well be up top at the valley pan gasket. Any fluids that leak up top will drain to the back of the pan. Then out the drain hole and down the passenger side of the bellhousing making it look like a main seal or a valve cover gasket...

 

[purg113]

The oil comes down from above my oil filter and to the front drivers side of the trans.

 

[79jasper]

The last time I thought my rear main seal was toast, it turned out to be an intake manifold gasket that was dripping down and appearing right where a rear main seal would leak from. I was pretty happy with that as opposed to a rear main seal.

Was that on a idi??
I could see the valley pan having a oil leak, but wouldn't see it being common.

The oil comes down from above my oil filter and to the front drivers side of the trans.

Valve cover. Or possibly headgasket.
Mine leaked when I first got it, but I played with it in the driveway fixing stuff while I was waiting to put insurance on it, I would run it quite often, by the time I got insurance on it and took it on the road, the leak had stopped.

Just as a "test," you could retorque the valve cover bolts to see if it lessens or goes away. If it does, go ahead and change them. Or just change them anyways.
I didn't notice it until swapping that engine into my brothers truck, but all the bolts were basically finger loose.

 

[icanfixall]

The drivers side valve cover is the easy cover to work on. May as well just change it out.

 

[RLDSL]

Go to the parts store and get a UV dye for oil, you will need 2 small bottles for an engine this size, then drop about 15 bucks for a cheap set of UV glasses and light set that they use for testing for ac leaks that most parts stores sell ( hint, if you are going to be working on a lot of stuff, go to snap on or sears and get a better light set m these UV dyes are the best thing for finding leaks in everything...EXCEPT AC systems ironically, there they only find huge leaks, you need a sniffer for small leaks on AC ) you dump the dye in the oil and run it a while , then shut it down. Best done after dark. Then crawl under there with the UV light and look for the bright yellow glowing trail. It will lead you DIRECTLY to the pinpoint start of the leak with NO guesswork and no unneeded repairs chasing your tail. Otherwise you could spend hundreds and waste days fixing things that dont need fixing only to find you have a crack in your oil pressure sending unit.

 

[purg113]

Go to the parts store and get a UV dye for oil, you will need 2 small bottles for an engine this size, then drop about 15 bucks for a cheap set of UV glasses and light set that they use for testing for ac leaks that most parts stores sell ( hint, if you are going to be working on a lot of stuff, go to snap on or sears and get a better light set m these UV dyes are the best thing for finding leaks in everything...EXCEPT AC systems ironically, there they only find huge leaks, you need a sniffer for small leaks on AC ) you dump the dye in the oil and run it a while , then shut it down. Best done after dark. Then crawl under there with the UV light and look for the bright yellow glowing trail. It will lead you DIRECTLY to the pinpoint start of the leak with NO guesswork and no unneeded repairs chasing your tail. Otherwise you could spend hundreds and waste days fixing things that dont need fixing only to find you have a crack in your oil pressure sending unit.

I will try that the next time i am out at the truck thanks.
is there a dye just for oil ? all I can find at the part store web site is ac dye.