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Oil Pan Gasket & Rear Main Seal-PITA

TURBO1

TURBO1

Super Cool Member
So, the car was due for an oil change, I figured now was a good time to do the oil pan gasket & rear main seal. I had to order the oil Brad Penn 10w-30, and I didn't want to waste the oil doing the gaskets later on. Anyway, I followed the manual, disconnected the neg. battery terminal, removed the wiper motor assy, removed the coil pack assy, drained oil, supported engine & removed the through bolts at the mounts & raised engine. Removed all the oil pan bolts, light tap & the pan would not budge. This is were the WTF starts & went down hill from here.

So, a few more harder taps with a rubber dead blow hammer on the sides and nothing, the pan feels like its welded to the engine, 20min later and now I'm getting pissed, I don't want to hit it harder or pry on it for the risk of damage. I figured one more shot and used my 4lb dead blow with one good wack and it finely broke loose, what I found, was no cork or rubber gasket but a bead of white rtv so thick I swear it was about 1/4 in thickness. (Thanks previous owner) Removing all the old rtv was a job in its self. After the oil pan & engine block mounting surface were cleaned, I moved on to the rear main, removed the 2 cap bolts, broke it loose and it would not come out. I could lightly move it front to back, but not pull down. It took me over an hour at this point with a buddy of moving, prying, anything we could think of and a lot of swearing of what kind of !@#$ did I just get my self into and its to late to turn back now. With a lot of luck, it finely came out, and low and behold the sides were filled rtv (no gaskets).

Cleaned everything, bearing was in good shape, re-assembled with the felpro rear main rubber seal, lubed the seals, (the side rubber seals w/pins were another fun install) used anaerobic sealer on top of the cap per the manual and torqued to spec. Made sure the engine block surface & oil pan was clean & dry & used felpro rubber gasket, torqued to spec. Put every thing back together and hooked the neg battery cable back up, filled with oil, went to turn engine over to prime before starting, and nothing, no power or anything.

Battery was fully charged as I use a battery tender all the time. The battery was newer also. So I put a jump box on it, to turn over & then to start it. Once it started, it ran rough like it needed to be relearned, once it warmed up it was better, but not 100%. No codes in system, drove vehicle home, with it running, I have proper alternator output at the battery & the alternator. Turned vehicle off for a few minutes to due a battery load test, battery reads 12.6v, but once a load is applied it just drops to about 2v. I'm just like WTF. I can't believe the battery just died the way it did when there was no symptoms or any issues before that, it always fired right up with a fast turn over, more so with all ways having the battery tender on it.

Well, looks like Ill be getting another battery & recheck everything, at least its not leaking like it was (knock on wood) for now. Sorry to go on and on, but I just needed to vent. This took me from 8am to about 5:30pm start to finish with a 2 post lift. This was my first time doing this on a 3rd gen F-body, and I don't want to do this anytime soon again, I don't know how some of you guys do it on jack stands a couple feet off the ground, if that and be done in a couple of hours, I applaud you if you can. Well, thanks for reading, I'll post and update later on.
 
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Sorry to hear about your troubles, its always something all the time with these cars. But it will all come out good. Will I guess the silicone, instead of the gaskets held up a while.

I am glad I had all gaskets and rear main seal put on last year with the motor out. Good Luck!!!
 
Is there something diff about the TTA's vs. the GN's,I mean,I did my rear main seal without lifting the eng up,the oil pan basically comes right off.
And also,did it fix the leak?Where and what oil pan and rear main seals did you get?
 
The crossmember poses some interference that's all. Lifting the engine a couple inches makes it relatively hassle free. You may need, to rotate the crank depending on where the counter weight(s) end up.

There are only 2 rear main seals, that I know of anyway, The Felpro and one made by Corteco.

Knurled factory cranks can use either without modification, the steel crank usually needs some fitting and set up to get it to seal.That is if it's the typical non knurled crank.
 
The question is - will it leak again? I did my rear main seal on my 5.0 Mustang engine when I changed the clutch, and I still get a drip. I think if the design is bad, it will leak again.
It looks to me that someone did my oil pan gasket on my TTA before I got it. I am not sure if the rear main seal was done, but I still have a minor leak from it.
 
I have an 87 GN that I have owned since 1992,right away had to do a rear main,was good for anumber of years,now is leaking again,but not as bad as my TTA.That one needs to be done first.
 
I never had a rear main leak ( ever) when I was running the stock cast crank. BUT! I spent the time fitting the seal halves and test fitting it. Problem is the mold for these seals must be old because they are too big. One I had to take off some "flash" from the backside of the seal, another I had to take off some off the end(s) of the seal. They are too big and when tightened down they don"t make a perfect circle and parts off the seal over contact while other sections don't make enough contact. Like an egg shape if you will.


Now, the steel crank leaked right away because it has no knurling and neither does the seal (ala BBC). I changed it in the car and still took my time fitting it. It lasted exactly 76 miles before it started leaking.

This time I'm trying the Corteco and I spent over 1 1/2 hours with prussian Blue marking compound and setting the crank in and out more times than I can remember, but I finally got an even "wipe" of the seal edge....but time will tell if my efforts pay off.I spent many hours studying and researching rear main seal problems and it seems non knurled cranks are prone to leaking.


..
 
ev2 aar said:
Is there something diff about the TTA's vs. the GN's,I mean,I did my rear main seal without lifting the eng up,the oil pan basically comes right off.
And also,did it fix the leak?Where and what oil pan and rear main seals did you get?
Click to expand...

Like other people said, you need to raise the engine for clearance, but to do that you also need to remove the wiper motor & coil pack (per the service manual) or damage may result to them if you don't. My biggest issue I ran into was that the oil pan & rear main seal had so much silicone (rtv) on it, (original owner said he installed new gaskets/seals when I asked) that they both felt like they were welded to the engine. Just trying to remove them & clean them after they finely came out, took most of my time, otherwise I could of had it done in a few hours. I used the Fel-Pro blue rubber oil pan gasket & followed the instructions to a T. Also used the Fel-pro Rubber rear main seal. I bought them both off Amazon w/free shipping. Its not leaking now (knock on wood) but, its to early to tell, I'll need to put some miles on it to tell for sure.
 
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