Rear Main Seal Repair gone bad

[robfg67]

Jeff, your right there is a machined hole on the "ear" of the block casting, directly above the starter.

 

It does not open into the engine internals. Perhaps it's for lifting the engine or a peg might sit into it as a jig for assembly. Although fuzzy, you can see the hole here:

 

[robfg67]

….and the reason for the oil leak is…..user error!

 

It took some “monkeying” to get the oil pan into position and the rear lip of the gasket (RMS side) did not seat correctly, which lead to the leak. I’m assuming the RMS replacement is good and I’m not touching it.

 

 

I pulled the gasket, cleaned the surface, applied a skim coat of RTV, placed the new gasket, screwed ¼” bolts in all the holes to hold it in place, rested it upside down overnight, skim coated the top of the gasket, and installed.

 

I’ll let it cure for a couple days and cross my fingers.

[FxRacing282]

now is the time to paint that oil pan. engine paint is only $7 at napa.

[mjeff87]

Thanks Rob, that 's the hole I was talking about.

 

I had the same problem with the Felpro gasket bunching up, but it was in the front of the pan behind the harmonic balancer. Took it all apart and used some RTV blue and all's been good with mine since.

 

Jeff

[robfg67]

FxRacing282, the paint job on the oil pan is great-what you see is the UltraBlack RTV that has been smeared all over it! :thumbsup:

[Oizarod115]

well glad its all good.

 

but for all you guys (cough PETE cough cough) that have had RMSs whip your @$$... thats kinda "what these do" any 2 piece rear main is a junk design... ask any dodge truck owner... they don't always take on the first try, i did my mom's twice, i did one a few months ago on a 4.0 and he hasn't been back so i'm assuming it's good. my buddy's took 2 tries... my boss has had several come back over the years.

its just a bad design... it takes about the same amount of time on a lift with a transmission jack to pull the tranny and do a 1-piece and it won't come back for a free one later.

[Pete M]

Hey, it won a few battles, but I won the war. :D