Hello, long time lurker and official new member. Let me start this by thanking you all, for all the knowledge available on this page. I'm a hobbyist at best and have never had anything to contribute that wasn't covered a million times on here already. I've recently acquired a SBC 283 out of a '57 vette that will be transplanted into my '50 Styleline and decided all new gaskets would be a good idea before throwing it in there. This was the first time I've had the pleasure of dealing with a rope rear main seal. I've searched and scoured on tips for removing the block side half of the seal and between all the ripping and fraying I found myself with both sides 1/2" under the block surface and was running out of options. I have read mixed reviews on the "sneaky Pete" tool but I'm both frugal and impatient and did not want to spend the time and little bit of money waiting on a specialty tool to show up. A couple minutes with calipers, my computer and 3D printer I came up with a way to safely drive it out of its seat without marring any surfaces. I designed a seal shaped piece that rides in the groove and can be drove in using a plastic punch. Once my plastic punch would bottom out I could simply add another piece and continue driving it in, it took a total of 3 of these pieces stacked to get the remainder of the seal out but absolutely no damage was done and it saved purchasing another specialty tool that would collect dust in my box. I realize this is a very niche situation to be in but I wanted to share it if even if only one other person would find it helpful. If anyone thinks this would help them please reach out and I can provide an STL file for these pieces. Again, thank you all and I hope to contribute to this community.
Nice solution. But done right, the sneaky pete’s do work. I’ve had mine since before 3D printing was a pipe dream. But good thinking in the modern world.
This was my last ditch effort before ordering one. Hopefully I never have to deal with another one but will keep it in mind if that day comes!
Old seal must have been pretty stiff (?) in order for that to work. As the saying goes. “You can’t push with a rope”.
In my fairly limited experience, removing the old one was the easy bit!!! You'll need the Sneaky Pete for installing the new one for sure.
Would that only be for if I'm using a new rope seal? I have a neoprene replacement on order and just assumed it'd be similar to other SB 2 pc seals.
It was pretty stiff, I'm not sure of the history of this engine but I saw no apparent evidence that it's been opened up before so it very we'll could've been the factory seal. You may not be able to push with a rope but can definitely force a rope to move a certain way if it has no where else to go and a big enough hammer and punch.
That's very true, my experience was with the Stovebolt in my 51. No alternative replacement for them so new rope it was!!
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