91 Land Cruiser leaking a lot of oil. Pan gasket or rear main seal?

[Firpo]

Title says it all.
Have a 91 land cruiser, 149k.

It leaks enough oil to where I try not to park it on the driveway anymore.
It leaks about a quart every few months.

When I looked to see where the leak is coming from I first though it was the pan gasket as the back of the pan (towards the tranny) was fairly wet, but the most of the front was dry.

My boss chimed in and said he thinks that it's more likely the rear main seal than the pan. Another look at the thing, and it really looks like it could be one or the other.

How should I go about distinguishing what is leaking?
Replacing the seal is like 7-800 bucks, as where I could replace the pan gasket, or pan all together myself for much cheaper I'm sure. So I'd rather fix what's actually leaking for obvious reasons.

Cheers,
aa.

 

[Damnit]

Spray a s***load of degreaser all over the area, make sure you get rid of all the oil, dirt and grease leaving it all nice and clean. Then check both areas several times a day, if it is leaking as much as you say then you should be able to find where it's leaking pretty quick. Good luck and let us know what you find

 

[Kernal]

If you have an inspection port on the front of the bell-housing AFAIK you can use a mechanics mirror to look up and forward toward the rear seal. From reading other threads IIRC leaks from the rear oil pan arch are common with the 3FE.

 

[1911]

The engine side cover (over the pushrod gallery) is also a very common leak on all F-series engines, including the 3FE.

 

[D1EZEL]

Had the same issue, I found that my valve cover gasket was split in the rear, it presented as it the rear main was leaking.

 

[ST8ROCKS]

When my oil pan gasket was leaking the oil dripped off the ends of the bolts.

As posted clean the heck out of the area, degreaser, car wash with pressurized simple tire wheel/tire cleaner is good too. Try and tighten the oil pan bolts to see if that cuts down on the leaking. Might eliminate that as the culprit.

From one leaky 3fe owner to another GOOD LUCK!!!