I just bought a 1995 Discovery and found an oil leak behind the main pulley on the engine front. Can any one tell me what I may be in for. Just picked up the vehicle last night and hunting for a service manual of some kind. Please suggest one you like.

Thanks,

 

Assuming you have correctly diagnosed where the leak is from, (very easy to make a mistake), a leak behind and at the pulley mean a bad crank shaft seal in the timing cover. It can be replaced in situ. You have to remove the crank shaft pulley, then the crank shaft bolt (the highest torqued bolt in the engine) and then the crankshaft damper. Removal is not that bad. Reinstallation of requires you to remove the starter or the bellhousing access plate to jam the flywheel sufficenlly to allow you to retorque the crankshaft bolt.

Figure 15 in parts and 3 hours labor.

 

Power wash the engine and conferm that it is the front crank shaft seal that is leaking.
The oil pressure sending unit is also a common leak, it is located right above the oil filter and it drips down the front of the filter and gets on the front of the engine.

I used RTV sealer and spread it with my finger, the leak stopped.
But the proper fix is replacing the seal. Your local mechanic can do it for cheap.

We all use the RAVE CD, it has everything you ever needed to know on how to rebuild and repair LR's from the Defender, Disco, and RR. Diesel's included.

Since you just bought this trk you realize that you must use premium gas, right?

 

Thanks for the advice I filled it up with premium right after I bought it. Looks like it is the crank seal and from the accumulated oil it has been leaking for some time. The truck has 145,000. Where do I find the Rave CD?

 

Do a search on here and you will find the CD download.
Otherwise you can buy it off e-bay for $10.

 

From what I hear, and have observed myself from decades of ownership of English-built vehicles, ALL English built vehicles leak a bit. (Well except for the newest ones). Do you get a puddle of oil on your garage floor from this leak, or does it just make the lower part of the engine oily? A few drips (on an older Disco) are not anything to worry about. If you are loosing significant oil between oil changes, then you may want to fix the problem, but if you are just getting your engine oily and a drip or two on the floor from time to time, I wouldn't worry about it. This is my opinion.

 

Hey I have a similar leak in my D2. Spike, you said that you used RTV sealer to stop the leak. Where did you put it exactly? Can it be used to plug any oil leaks? I might want to give that a try rather then taking apart the front of the engine. Thanks alot

 

I used my finger and just spread it around the crank seal. I cleaned it first, spread the RTV sealer, let it dry overnight, and one year and 20k later still no leaks.
You dont need to take the front of the engine aprt to fix it, you just need to remove the crank pully, you need a special tool to remove and replace the seal though.
I have heard that it is about a $150 repair at a shop.