Well, it leaking again! Just put this seal in last fall and have maybe 1200 miles on it. Started leaking slowly and then all hell broke loose. just got it home lost 2 quarts in 15 miles. The evidence is all over my windshield. Its a 53' with stock pistons and heads, running one holly 94, oil pressure is 10-12 idle and 45-60 at highway speeds. The last seal I put in was Speedway piece. When I put this one in I cut off the spiraled portion of the pully and had a short piece made to slide on the crank. The piece fits the crank nice and snug and running a 125 ground finish against the seal. Just getting it ready for the Jalopy showdown and now I got to tear the front off the motor. Doubt I can have it done by then. How can I stop the madness, this is the 3rd one I have done on this motor in 2 years. Any thoughts.
Mahe sure dude that the new seal is pre lubed before start up otherwise youll tear the sesl on the initial fire up. Is the replacement crank snout collr the right OD? Rat
That ain't right. It sounds almost as if blowby pressurized the bottom end to the point where the lip reversed on the seal. That being said - seals do fail. Pop and I were talking about this the other day; about half of the repop stuff out there is ****; I find I have to rework about 50% of the stuff I buy to get it to work right. Just installed a Speedway seal in my motor to avoid your scenario - hope that I don't run into the same prob...
Well guys thanks for the input. I havn't had a chance to pull it apart yet. I do know I have been seeing deteroiation of compression on my right bank. I am aware of it and putting together a new 59A to drop in. I have been spinning this motor hard (5400 rpm) and having fun with it. My only conclusion is that I have been seeing so much blow-by that I am pressurizing the crank case and blowing the seal out. I am not running a fuelpump stand and it it open with a tube, kinda like a road draft tube and also an old SP vent in the pan. Kinda hard to believe that I would still be pressurizing the crankcase with that much ventalation. Is anyone making a better seal than the one Speedway is putting out. Would like to make this repair last until the fall, when the 59A motor is ready.
Speedway's got the only seal of that type that I'm aware of. There's a way to 'cheat'... After you've popped the seal, take the new seal apart. The spring that holds the lip on the shaft sleeve can be shortened by about 3/16th; you do this by unscrewing the spring (think a snae eating its tail) and cutting off a bit with sidecutters. This increases spring tension - the seal will wear faster, but leak less during the process.
I've got the same seal. It leaks also, about a drop every 4 seconds idleing in the garage. Don't know how bad it leaks on the road. The oil level hasn't dropped that I can tell. I've only drivin it 40-50 miles so far.
I am using the front seal from Reds Headers with a seal repair sleeve slid over the seal spirals on the pulley. I used lock-***e when installing the sleeve to seal everthing. No leaks even after dropping the oil pan and reusing the same seal. I am running a pcv on it also. Vergil
Go to a bearing house and see if they can set you up with a better seal design. It seems that seals are seals to an extent although there are some differences in lip design. I fought the factory rope seal in my 455 Buick for quite a while. Part of the problem was that Fel-Pro was supplying a too short chunk of rope seal for the front timing cover. Every time I opened it up there was a - minumum - 1/4" gap between the ends and sometimes worse. I went so far as to buy a couple feet of bulk seal from an irrigation pump shop and cut my own. It worked pretty well, but in the end I made an alumnum adapter for the aluminum timing cover and used a modern rubber seal. It does the job. Funny part is, the seal is the same part number as a Camaro front wheel bearing seal. (For the late Buick engine enthusiasts this is a different seal than sold by the Buick speed houses. Their seal goes in from the back, mine - with the adapter goes in from the front.) Another option may be to get a very narrow seal and run two of them. Pack them with grease and the front - somewhat unlubricated one - should last for quite a while.
The Jalopy Journal
