this damn car is freaking killing me.

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abodyjoe

abodyjoe

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damn thing runs great, drives and handles great. just won't hole its oil. just cant find the leak. now I'm suspecting the oil pan gasket. its a jegs 1 piece that I've never used before. wondering if it moved or something. just not sure. can't find it on my back or when its up on a lift so I'm pulling the damn motor to look it over. putting a conventional pan gasket on it even if its now where its leaking. with the motor out I'll be able to see everything better and hopefully find the damn leak.

down to a month before this thing has to go on a 4000 mile road trip. i have 500 miles on it so once back in I'm confident it will make that trip as ling as the oil leak is fixed. if not we will take my 08 mustang or our 19 mustang convertible. leaning to the 19 convertible. that thing is so comfortable to drive and drives so well its incredible. that lil echo boost has plenty of pep too.

told jamie if the dart doesn't make it to sick66 then next year I'll make sure we can drive it to Mississippi for cruising the coast.

damn car is set up to cruise distance and it needs to do it soon. :)

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That sucks but I like your plan of attack. Yank the damn engine, find leak, fix, stab engine back in. To me that’s easier than laying on my back for 3 days wiping, cleaning and trying to run the engine to find the leak.
 
TT5.9mag said:
That sucks but I like your plan of attack. Yank the damn engine, find leak, fix, stab engine back in. To me that’s easier than laying on my back for 3 days wiping, cleaning and trying to run the engine to find the leak.
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yup.. spent a month laying on my back trying to find the damn leak..
 
abodyjoe said:
yup.. spent a month laying on my back trying to find the damn leak..
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Wow you went a lot longer than I would have. The engine I just finished leaked at the China rails, both corners at the front. Pissed me off that I had to yank the intake and use up another set of NOS W2 gaskets. But I was glad to find it on the run stand and not after I put it in the car.
 
I used one of these on my 360 LA.
Black RTV at the corners.
20,000 miles and no leaks.

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Had a lot of problems (thought it was the pan gasket), swapped to this BS40651 felpro viton seal to fix it.
 
skep419 said:
Had a lot of problems (thought it was the pan gasket), swapped to this BS40651 felpro viton seal to fix it.
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i'll see for sure once the engine is out but the flexplate and converter are dry so it doesn't seem like a rear main problem.. who knows though,,
 
abodyjoe said:
i'll see for sure once the engine is out but the flexplate and converter are dry so it doesn't seem like a rear main problem.. who knows though,,
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when i put in the 408 it leaked at the 90 degree oil filter adapter
well, there was oil on the filter so it must have leaked there, right?

plus, they are notoriously hard to get right (or easy to screw up) so it must have been the adapter

turns out, it was the rear mail seal, oil was leaking out onto the torque converter and being slung up and it just happened to land on the filter

yeah, that one took me a while to find, and cured me from parroting "the highest point where you see oil is where the leak is"
 
diymirage said:
turns out, it was the rear mail seal, oil was leaking out onto the torque converter and being slung up and it just happened to land on the filter

yeah, that one took me a while to find, and cured me from parroting "the highest point where you see oil is where the leak is"
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crazy.. i thought adapter at first too.. re-gasketed it, then changed it all together.. hate that damn thing.. thing with this is that the converter and flexplate is dry.. who knows though. could still be the rear main..
 
Here’s the latest leak I’m chasing. When I took out the trans the engine rotated back towards the firewall. Damaged one of these hardware store fittings that a previous owner had installed.

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abodyjoe said:
crazy.. i thought adapter at first too.. re-gasketed it, then changed it all together.. hate that damn thing.. thing with this is that the converter and flexplate is dry.. who knows though. could still be the rear main..
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thats what i did too, i started out with a canton plate, regasketed that a few times
then one of our members send me an adapter so i put that on, and that didnt work
it drove me crazy

finally, just to prove to myself i wasnt crazy, i grabbeb a few shoprags and wrapped it around the oilfiter, then went to a drive

when i came back i took the rag off, and of course it was wet, but what really blew me away was when i unwrapped it it became gradually drier with each pass

thats what convinced me the oil leak was NOT coming down the filter
 
Put some dye in it and then go looking?
 
well nothing obvious behind the motor. the front and rear of the pan did look like it was leaking. how bad its hard to tell. the oil pan did spring up when i took the bolts out. wondering if the gasket was deforming the pan. rear seal area of the crank was dry. kinda at a loss. just don't know if it was just the pan or what. hate to put this thing all back together and have it still leak.

i did find my power steering lean. the return line on the box loosened up some.

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do you have a test stand to run it on?

maybe having it out in the open, where you can see it would be key


but i do agree, most oil pans i have removed need persuasion to come apart, to have one spring up is food for thought
how is the oil pick up tube ?
 
diymirage said:
do you have a test stand to run it on?

maybe having it out in the open, where you can see it would be key
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no run stand but before installed it was run on a stand and nothing.. i had it up in th eair running and revving to 4k and never saw a drop of oil.. seems to only do it when driving.. maybe it needs the load? not sure.
 
oh and the white stuff in the pics is powder,, trying to see if it would pick up a trail of oil or something
 
Thats what I was thinking pressurize crank case. A 3/8 hose, one end to your ear other move around will detect very small air leaks. Use pressure regulator to slowly add the air pressure.
 
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If the pan springs up when you loosen the bolts it didn’t seal. Is it hitting a pick up or a windage tray or something?
 
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