The bell housing will have oil in it even if it’s just the oil pan gasket leaking. I wouldn’t touch the crucifix seals if you won’t see oil weeping out of the holes on the bottom of the main cap. Any pics to post of what you are seeing? Do you have a mirror or a borescope to look up behind the flywheel?

 

Bottom of the main cap would be in the oil pan correct? So shouldn’t it have oil on it anyway?

not really sure what everything is down here lol, first time dropping an oil pan. Obviously I know the big stuff but not these “smaller” terms

There’s only like half an inch between where the transmission and engine mate to see but I do see some oil up there. I’ll try and get my borescope up there but might be to small

I’ll take a few pics of everything and post them, be back soon.

 

Can’t get my borescope up there really but definitely oil up there.

 

So those 2 bolts hold on the cap I guess and the cruciform seals are underneath. From what i could tell there was a bit of oil on them from the part that sticks out the back.

so if I drop that cap then I just pop the old seals out and put the new ones in, a little rtv I think and done?

 

Here is a pic my my rear main removed. There are 4 bolts it’s a cross bolted main. I already removed my seal but you can see where it goes. The side with all the gunk in it was facing inside the oil pan, the clean side faced the fly wheel. The slot facing toward the camera is what is sealed between the gasket and oil pan. If both those holes are clean then it’s not your crucifix seal. The rave should have the procedure on where to put RTV.

 

That picture helps a lot, thanks.

so just to be clear, the bottom of that picture faces the bottom of the oil pan, and then the short length on the right faces the fly wheel. Both the gunked sides were the ones inside the oil pan,

based on that, if the top and the right are clean, then it was not that seal.

mine are filled up with gasket or gasket maker so I would have to remove it to check. I’m gonna go over the rave to see the process and if it isn’t too much I’ll do it. If it is a lot then I just finished cleaning my oil pan, just gonna bolt it back up and throw the blue devil in anyway and see what happens.

Definitely gotta tighten my valve covers, with the pan off I can definitely see them leaking towards the inside rear. Sucks that I have to pull the intake to do that.

Thanks

 

So you can see on this picture on the left, after I wiped it all clean since the last picture, oil is coming through that seal. Gonna go ahead and just replace them because if it’s coming down here it’s probably going out the side

 

Yes you have the orientation of my picture correct. Oil leaking out of there does seems like you might have a crucifix seal issue. There is a thread on here someplace taking about the best one to get. The stock one the “arms” of the seal are really short and there is an aftermarket one with longer arms that probably seals better.

 

I got the ones from bearmach. They seem to be the only ones left that still make them as you described. The 19mm bolts that hold that cap on almost stripped out my extension that I was using being so tight. I just buttoned it back up thinking the main leak was a combination of the valve covers and the oil pan itself. Seeing as how easy it is to drop the oil pan I have no problem dropping it again and really getting to business with the cruciform seals if I need too, now I know where and what to look for.

Gonna search the forum and take a look under the hood, but does anyone know of a way to tighten the inboard bolts on the valve covers without removing anything? Seems to be no way to do it other than popping off the upper intake

thanks for your help

 

Yes m you need to remove the intake to get at the inboard bolts for the valve covers.