joee

after realizing a leakage in the front area of my 540 port engine, I first changed the crank seal.
Even though the sealing surface on the vibration damper looked pretty good I installed a repair sleeve # 16205 from Felpro.
As the leakage did not stop I measured the crankcase cover pressure on both engines at several load steps.
Pressure that I measured was fine, less than 1 inch (positive) water column at full load on port engine. Starboard engine (with much more running hours) showed significant higher crankcase pressure but without any oil leakage.
Vibration damper is not worn out and does not stagger.
As one can see on the video, the oil spill starts at higher engine speed (idling > 3000 rpm).
Oil pressure readings are not precise enough for further hints.
Anyway I need to remove the timing cover in order to check the crankcase front area for any possible cracks originated from the lube oil circuit, furthermore if the plugs from the lifter galley are still in place.
Any other ideas ?

Thanks

Joe

Griff

That's a huge leak. How did the old seal look when you took it out??
Could there be a crack in the timing cover??

sailtexas186548

My timing cover had a hole (rust) just under the seal that did t go away after several seal changes. I would pull the cover

BillK

Oil pressure should really not be a concern. The seal is not subject to engine oil pressure, only splash oil. That is a huge leak and hopefully will be easy to find once you pull the cover. Are you sure it isnt coming from the front of the oil pan ?

sutphen 30

thinking bottom of the timing cover.the oil pan gasket flange is spot welded on,,bet one of the spot welds has failed/leaking.

joee

boat was moved this weekend into winter storage hall, so I was unable to test run the vibration damper dummy that I was preparing for further diagnosis of the issue.
Anyway after removal of the timing cover, a damaged seal could be detected on the underside of the cover. The middle rubber pin of the seal was sheared off as well and left the small position boring open. During replacement of the crank seal I have obviously overseen that tiny hole (see attached photo).

joee

After a long absence I have been able to take care of my engines again

I had a problem with the strong oil leakage and found the installed one-piece oil pan gasket in the area of the front cover badly damaged. Since the oil pan cannot be lowered i.e. the oil pan gasket cannot be replaced in the boat, I would actually have to remove the engine to repair it. This is of course a huge effort.

Therefore, I am considering to keep the engine in the boat and carefully cutting out the front part of an identical replacement gasket (Felpro 1884R) then gluing it with bellow adhesive onto the corresponding sealing surface of the installed oil pan.

However, I have strong concerns about getting compress the much thicker Felpro gasket with 5/16" thickness (compared to the three-piece original GM gasket) onto the necessary gap when installed, that is about 5/32". During an assembly test it was already hard enough to compress the two small approx. 1 inch protruding, not yet separated seal remnant pieces.

When everything is removed, this would not be a problem as I can tighten the oil pan evenly with 22 bolts. However, when installed, I only have the two front bolts to use the timing cover to compress the bonded gasket until the two dowel pins can be pressed into timing cover and crankcase, and the timing cover mounting bolts can be tightened. To protect the two lower ¼" UNC threaded holes when tightening the timing cover towards oil pan, I will use two grade 8 studs.

My question on this, has anyone successfully done this type of repair before?

Thanks

Joe

Wally

iTrader: (1)

On my very first engine i built when i was 16 i had a front oil pan leak as well.....not anywhere near as bad as yours but it was messy and my dad didn't appreciate the stains on the driveway.
I didn't have an engine hoist (rented one to pull it out and put it back in the first time) so what i did was drain the oil out and spray the area down with carb cleaner...let it sit and dry out overnight...then sprayed it again in the morning and used a hair dryer to help dry it out again. I then used black RTV all over the front gasket area. Wasn't pretty but it held perfectly for over 5yrs of daily use without so much as a hint of a leak. Was it right..of course not but it did work!

getrdunn

iTrader: (7)

Unless I’m missing something here… why can’t you just clean with carb cleaner and silicone the crap out of it. I don’t even bother using a front gasket the gen IV. Same concept at front and rear gaskets on intake manifolds. Notta!

snapmorgan

iTrader: (2)

Get a fresh tube of the gray sealer that Ford/International use to seal the oilpan on a Powerstroke. No gasket needed and it will never leak if used correctly. It has a very short working time, aprox 5 minutes, but that should be plenty of time to set the timing cover in place.