Oil leak - rear main seal it seems

[Charles 236]

Hopefully when these rear main seal leaks are repaired, the techs will take the time to drop the oil pan as well. I have seen "techs" try to replace the rear main seal without dropping the oil pan. This almost never ends well, with a lasting repair. Also need to make sure that the rear main seal is properly fitted on the crankshaft and on the back of the block. I have seen a mis-machined engine block where the alignment of the rear main seal was NEVER going to be correct without special attention to fitting the seal.

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[ShadowsPapa]

Hopefully when these rear main seal leaks are repaired, the techs will take the time to drop the oil pan as well. I have seen "techs" try to replace the rear main seal without dropping the oil pan. This almost never ends well, with a lasting repair. Also need to make sure that the rear main seal is properly fitted on the crankshaft and on the back of the block. I have seen a mis-machined engine block where the alignment of the rear main seal was NEVER going to be correct without special attention to fitting the seal.

Are these a full circle endless seal (picture) or a seal in two halves?
I'm betting the latter since you can replace it without pulling the pan.
Anything else requires the pan be dropped and the rear main cap be dropped.

 

[bleda2002]

As far as I know it requires dropping the upper and lower pan while separating the block and trans to get to. At least when I looked up the repair process that's what it appeared to entail but maybe there is a shortcut way.

 

[Charles 236]

Are these a full circle endless seal (picture) or a seal in two halves?
I'm betting the latter since you can replace it without pulling the pan.
Anything else requires the pan be dropped and the rear main cap be dropped.

It is a one piece seal that is bonded into a metal retainer. It is possible to pull it without dropping the pan, as I noted above, but it is not the factory recommend procedure. Overall, it is a much better way to seal the crankshaft than the old two piece seals we had in the 4.0. But my favorite crappy seal design was the one piece seal that superceded the neoprene two piece seal in the GM 2.8 V6 in the Cherokee back in the eighties. To be honest, I hated those engines anyway.

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