318 LA rebuild after losing a valve seat

nm9stheham said
And here I thought my son was the only one I had to regularly lecture about the price of shortcuts LOL

Haha! Well, I've heard the lecture all my life....you'd think I would've learned by now! I'll be honest, I didn't replace the main seal because I didn't want to pull the crank. But after I had everything put together, I realized I could've replaced the seal without pulling the crank. The learning continues...

nm9stheham said
Well, you did prime the engine so got some oil back in that seal area. But it ought to drain out of some holes in the rear main cap and not build up around the main seal itself.....

I did notice when I removed the main cap that the main seal was sitting just a hair proud on one side, and recessed on the other. The oil pan seal was pretty darn close to being flush on both sides. That was the only obvious possible cause of a leak. I used just a tiny amount of RTV on the oil pan gasket, so now that it's had some time to cure, I'll fill her back up with oil and prime again, keeping an eye on that rear seal area and crossing my fingers.