did you use the hylomar on the ends of the crucifix seals?

and according to the rave the seal should be approx. 1.- 1.5 mm above the bearing cap face,
then a bead of sealer is applied iirc.

 

Subscribed to see answers. I'm battling a mysterious oil leak as well and also cut the ends of the crucifixes in a recent rebuild...

 

Yes, I used hylomar on all the faces of the seal, but not too liberally.

Unfortunately, I cut the bottom nub of the crucifix flush to the engine-to-oil pan mating surface (I must have missed that note in the rave rebuild guide) and BEFORE I torqued them down with the 2 step process, so I am thinking more and more that the problem is in the crucifix seals.

Anyone want to weigh in on removing and then reinstalling the lower rear crank bearing without de-mating the engine and transmission? it can be done, right? Good idea? bad idea?

 

I also cut the 'nubs' off the cruciform seals but used two good sized dots of sealant where they meet the oil pan / gasket and my engine is totally dry. Did you use sealant on the mating surface of the rear bearing cap where it meets the block as mentioned in the RAVE? If not oil will surely leak from there.

You also may have the rear main seal canted at a slight angle which can cause an oil leak. Lastly, if your crankshaft has seen rough service it is possible the rear mating surface is not making good contact with the rear main seal.

 

No idea about the RMS being canted -- my son installed that when I had my back turned for a moment :-).

I had the crank polished and it "mic'ed" afterwards and then plastigauged during trial fit, and it was all within tolerances (albeit in the upper half of the acceptable range).

I do recall putting sealant on both the block and the cap top for that last bearing and RMS, so I don't think it is leaking at that point but who knows without taking it apart. Actually, I may see if my harbor freight camera inspection tool's head will get up behind the flywheel so I can see what is going on at the outside of the RMS area. (has anyone done this). This is when you need that skinny fiber head that you always see Chuck Norris or Steven Segal using in those Delta Force movies.

However, before I even start going at the RMS cap, removing the bearing, etc., it hadn't even occurred to me to simply take off the oil pan and "inject" a big dollup of hylomar at the bottom of the crucifix seals, put on an new oil pan gasket, torque it all up and see what happens.

Thanks for pointing that out -- duh on me.

 

I believe the person you want to talk to is rovermastertech this came up last month,
he has done a few of them in the car without dropping the crank i "believe"

 

Thanks.

I pinged Mastertech and asked him to weigh in.

I read his post and went back to the RAVE to read about the crucifix install procedure.

It seems to imply that the 1-1.5MM "nub" is for the part of the crucifix that mates to rear main seal side and not the oil pan side.

I did not trim that end of the crucifix seal but left it intact. I did not trim it back to 1-1.5mm: whatever was sticking out above the mating surface was sticking out when I installed it.

Is it possible that that nub on the end of the crucifix was too long and got "squished", distorted and compressed in such a way that when I tightened down the cap it resulted in the mating surfaces on either side of the nub not quite reaching the hylomar?

Also, in reading Mastertech's post, I had completely forgotten about the main cap side bolts and the special washers (dowty washers?) that they use.

These washers come in both a 16mm and 19mm size. Does anyone know whether the side bolts for the end cap with the crucifix seals takes the 16mm or 19mm washers? I can't remember.

 

Update.

We dropped the pan was expecting bad crucifix seals or worse a leaking RMS, but looks like it was just countersunk nibs at the bottom of the crucifix (we shaved them before final torquing -- bad move as torquing pulled the cruxes below the mating surface). There was no oil at all on the back of the engine above the sump mating surface and the sump seal was super oily across the back when we pulled it off. Filled the bottom of crucifixes with lots of hylomar, fitted a new sump gasket, now at 200 miles and not a drop so far -- fingers crossed.

What worried me when we had the pan off was there was some "gelatinous" crud at the bottom of the oil sump after only 5,000 miles on a clean rebuild (otherwise everything inside looked great -- there was even still a lot of fresh cross-hatch on the cylinder sleeves). My brother thought the gunk felt like excess sealant, but to me it felt like wet cardboard.

And yes, we used a basic Fram PH-16. I am guessing that is where the gunk in the sump came from. Have always used the orange Frams on everything but my '73 911 (great marketing as I bought into the brand) for nearly 35 years now, but never again.

So I am upgrading the filter this week when my son gets back from school for spring break.

I have read many of the threads here on filters (including "end all") and had decided on the M1-301 as a good compromise (bigger than the 204 but not as big as the monster purolator/Mann propane tanks). However, I couldn't seem to confirm anywhere what the bypass pressure is for this filter, so I bought a WIX 51515 instead (someone confirmed later that the M1-301 also has a bypass in the 8-11psi range).


Will keep you up-to-date on whether we fixed the leak or not.

 

Never use a orange fram ph16, filter, if you want to use fram filter only use the Gold XG, use XG8A, and it's totally diff construction inside (I have cut one open to actually see inside) it has metal mesh & 2 layers of synthetic filter element, insted of cardboard & regular paper filter & pressure valve is set at 12psi,

 

Thanks.

I brought up the orange Fram as a heads-up to anyone else who might as a matter of convenience use them.

I am going with the WIX 51515 and a "blend" of Rotella T 15/40 (5 quarts) and Rotella T 10/30 (2 quarts) for his trip to Colorado (estimate 3,000 miles). Want to cut the viscosity a bit for start-ups in 20 degree weather.

When he gets back to the warm confines of Texas, I will change out for straight 15/40 and the WIX again.