327 with a stubborn oil leak, help

No, not overtightening i'm sure. it's gotta be either the gasket, possibly the timing cover, but i'll be suprised if I missed that. I'll know monday after work.

 

stubborn leak..revision B. Pulled the pan, replaced the gaskets and seals, measured the pan, 2 1/4" at the front, so should get the thin seal, tried the thick one anyway, no way the pan is going on with that one, Installed the thin seal. blob of silicone at the corners of the seals, and then a thin swipe of blue silicone (it says for gas and oil use) across the front seal where it meets the pan. Put it all back together and drip drip drip STILL LEAKING right where at the center of timing cover/oil pan seal. All this after noticing the brand new door glass I put in my 37 last week is now cracked again. I'm almost afraid to touch anything else

FWIW the 327 as a high volume oil pump so it has a lot of oil pressure, but that shouldnt be a problem.

The only thing I know to do now is to pull off the timing cover and look at it from the inside, I've always just slapped the oil pans on and drove, never a leak before.

any other suggestions not covered above?

 

I have re-used felpro one piece gaskets before with no problems. I will never use anything else again. Never had any leaks at all on the oil pan or front cover.
ccnova

 

Not gonna jump in the debate about the correct seal for an engine on a stand.

For a leaker in the car-

Loosen the pan bolts, remove the timing cover, clean the heck out of everything with solvent. Big bead of silicone in the timing cover, and another on the pan lip. Tighten the pan up, and wipe the outer edge smooth. Let er dry overnight before adding oil. Good luck.

 

I believe you have excessive pressure causing this leak[allowing you let the sealer dry overnite before firing up]...
On the broken glass look and see if the steel channel that the glass is set in at the regulator is long enough....
By that I mean it should be within 1-2" of same length as the glass itself...if not look at where the crack originates.....[usually at the end of this steel part]

 

I had this problem a couple of months ago. It leaked out of the center of the oil pan timing cover gasket. I dropped the pan, which was glued on and a bitch to get off. Put in a new gasket set with the correct size rubber seal. I fired it up and it still leaked. I figured it was the cheap Taiwaneese pan so I replaced it with another. Fired it up, still leaked. I was pretty frustrated because I bought the more expensive pan. I was wiping the oil away and noticed one side of the timing gasket was soaked with oil. I started it up and oil was flowing out around the gallery plug to the upper left of the timing cover. I tried to tighten it up and it just went in farther and had no resistance so I pulled it out and the plug had no taper.
Long story short, it turned to be UNF instead of NPT, so I epoxied the plug in place, rather than try to pipe tap an assembled engine. Never had a leak after that.
I felt like an idiot because it was a simple fix. I bought an unnecessary gasket set and an oil pan. I assume the previous owner had the same problem because of the way the pan was glued on.

Dave

 

are you sure its the pan leaking?...just to be safe mabe take a look at the snout of the harmonic balancer if it has a grove worn in it that could be where the leak is originating.if so felpro has a sleave kit to restore the snout.

 

thanks. I'll look into this, i'm pulling it down again monday, Oil pressure is no higher than any other warmed over sbc, and there's no undue crankcase pressure, I even pulled the oil cap off the tube and the dipstick to make sure. I think(hope) somethings amiss in the timing cover. I may go ahead with the one piece gasket if the timing cover looks normal. I already did the balancer sleeve fix as mentioned at the start of this post. amazing something so simple can be so complicated.

 

great info in this thread

Mike 3137 did you ever fix the leak??

currently im fighting a pan gasket/timing cover leak, thanks to post#19 from racefab i just found out that i need the thick pan gasket, mine measures 2-3/8".

i eneded up taking the timing cover off and all that....because i thought if i didnt...i would end up having too, my plan is to clean, clean and then clean the surfaces, use the thick fel-pro one piece gasket, the "right stuff" gasket sealer and oil pan studs, and hoping to do this just once.......i should have it back together in a week and will post my results......


Results:...it worked, i used the thick fel-pro pan gasket, the "right stuff" gasket sealer and pan studs, everything went together well, so far a week of driving and no leaks.......wish i knew about the thick gasket a long time ago.......

 

First, how many quarts of oil are you pouring in? If the level is that high, its to much. Then, another old trick is do what gasheat says above, then go one step further. Plug all the vents in the engine, and run a vacuum hose from the dip stick tube to another car with the engine running. Then put the sealer in the crack, the vacuum pill pull it in where it needs to be. Let it sit 12 hours before you refill the crank case, and try it a quart low.

 

Almost 2 years, I sure hope its fixed by now.....

 

Sounds like your leak is from the oil coming off front main bearing into timing cover where the bottom seal area is welded to the timing cover,the oil is getting through the welded piece the rubber gasket sets in,clean it and smear silicone in that area then put the rubber seal in and put a little silicone on the pan side of the rubber and your leak is fixed,pretty sure its leaking down from the timing cover welded area.

 

yeah no doubt!

9-8-2007