Rear Main Seal Replacement

[sdelaney]

Well, on my 1983 C20 6.2 I seem to have developed a substantial rear main seal leak, oil pan gasket leak, or both.

It's a two piece rear main and seems like I should be able to do it without moving the transmission or jacking up the engine.

Just remove the inspection cover and maybe the starter, drop the oil pan, remove the oil pump and rear main cap, and so forth.

Sound about right? Any pitfalls I should be aware of?

I tried to search the topic in this forum but it returned a few thousand results.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Robyn]

Just about right.

Same basic thing you would do on an early RAT OR MOUSE MOTOR...

If YOU ARE LUCKY and the engine has a hard backed neoprene seal it's pretty easy to shove the old one out and the new one in.

If you find the rope type seal it can be a bit more work...


Good luck

JUST AN FYI

These engines use a high temp silicone goop on the pan rails, so do not be shocked if you do not find a gasket...

Gaskets were not used on these engine on the pan and rocker covers... only the goop.

[sdelaney]

Hey thanks!

So is it a good idea to use a gasket now, or just load it up with the high temp silicone?

[DmaxMaverick]

Hey thanks!

So is it a good idea to use a gasket now, or just load it up with the high temp silicone?

NO gaskets. They'll just leak, sooner or later. Use "The Right Stuff" on clean surfaces and be done with it.

[Robyn]

"THE RIGHT STUFF" IS GREAT....A bit more $$$ than the standard hi temp black silicone.

The key to making any of the "GOO IN A TUBE" work well is to be sure that all surfaces are clean and OIL FREE...

Use a clean shop towel and wet it with BRAKEKLEEN...Wipe all surfaces and allow to dry...then apply the goop.

[sdelaney]

Thanks for all the info and advice. For now I'll file it away for later use.

After contorting myself up under and on top I discovered that the leak was in fact coming from a pipe nipple that the PO used to install an after market oil pressure gauge (about 30 years ago based on the appearance of the gauge). The nipple had completely rusted through.

An 89 cent brass plug solved that problem. Whew!

Thanks again!

[More Power]

"While we're in here we might as well . . . "

Sounds like most "honey-do" projects...