Oil Leak??
- Thread starter Brentbba
- Start date
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if it's the valve cover gasket it's a $20.00 part and about an hour to put it in. The upper oil pan is another story.
Brent,
I had a real nice full page write-up on this for you, but forgot to login first and lost it, so here's the short version:
Two oil pans - no. 1: upper aluminum pan about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. no. 2: lower oil pan that has the drain plug in it. No 2 would be a breeze to repair, just remove, clean surface, re-apply FIPG and bolt back on.
As landtank mentioned, no. 1 is a whole other ballgame. Requires unbolting the engine from the mounts and jacking up some to get the pan out. As your mom used to ask before you went to the bathroom - "little job or big job". This is definitely a number 2.
You don't have to remove the transmission to repair either of these. You only have to remove the transmission to replace the rear main. If he's quoting 7 hours, I might take him up on that and tell him to replace the rear main and the reseal the rear pan arch while he's in there.
The following is my .02: If it's just seeping, leave it be. Someone else here could probably tell whether this is waiting on a desaster, be there's more than one of here riding around with a rear main seeping. If replacing the valve cover gasket will eliminate some or most of your consumption, then you might go ahead and get that replaced. But on the rear main: you can buy a lot of oil for that $1000 bill to fix it.
Rookie2
I had a real nice full page write-up on this for you, but forgot to login first and lost it, so here's the short version:
Two oil pans - no. 1: upper aluminum pan about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. no. 2: lower oil pan that has the drain plug in it. No 2 would be a breeze to repair, just remove, clean surface, re-apply FIPG and bolt back on.
As landtank mentioned, no. 1 is a whole other ballgame. Requires unbolting the engine from the mounts and jacking up some to get the pan out. As your mom used to ask before you went to the bathroom - "little job or big job". This is definitely a number 2.
You don't have to remove the transmission to repair either of these. You only have to remove the transmission to replace the rear main. If he's quoting 7 hours, I might take him up on that and tell him to replace the rear main and the reseal the rear pan arch while he's in there.
The following is my .02: If it's just seeping, leave it be. Someone else here could probably tell whether this is waiting on a desaster, be there's more than one of here riding around with a rear main seeping. If replacing the valve cover gasket will eliminate some or most of your consumption, then you might go ahead and get that replaced. But on the rear main: you can buy a lot of oil for that $1000 bill to fix it.
Rookie2
I bought my rig knowing the front and rear were leaking and not being a DIYer at all, negotiated the job into the purchase price. Got both fixed and nary a leak since then...
$1200 for the whole enchilada.
$1200 for the whole enchilada.
- Thread starter
- #45
Thanks Rookie2. Did find some of -I think-your pics from back in January. Bottom of my engine looks very similar. Going to have the valve cover gasket replaced. It ain't Cdan's parts inventory, so they didn't have one to finish the job today. Will have the part tomorrow a.m. and do it. Benefit of living in a large metropolitain area - huge distribution warehouse not to far away. hehehe
We'll go from there - thanks for the redo on your write-up.
We'll go from there - thanks for the redo on your write-up.
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- Dec 11, 2003
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I know it's not the cleanest of repairs, but I have found that the high temp blue silicon RV type works wonders to stop a small leak, you need to do a very good cleaning and degreasing in the area and apply on the outside, it should work until you need to do additional work ( main rear seal ) on the engine.
Pans usually leak in the rear near the bellhousing. This is what most think is a rear main leak that can end up being fixed by either tightening the bolts holding the pan on or removing the pans and cleaning things up/regasketing.
Not clean, nor the shortest repair. My 3FE has a some leaks on the pan as well, that gets tackled next.
Not clean, nor the shortest repair. My 3FE has a some leaks on the pan as well, that gets tackled next.
- Thread starter
- #48
Got her back last night. Valve cover gasket replaced. Bottom of engine so clean I could eat off it right now. Dealer put dye into the oil and said drive the hell out of her for the next 300-500 miles and bring it back, throw it up on a hoist and hit her with a black light to see if there are any other leaks. Ok - I'll do my part by towing our trailer up the Grapevine from LA to Kernville for some river rafting next weekend. That ought to put plenty of exercise on the engine. hehehe
Hopefully nothing further to add to this.
Hopefully nothing further to add to this.