Im in the middle of trying to figure out this ongoing oil leak problem I have had. I had the car in a local shop 3 times for massive oil leak and they never got it right. They reportedly replaced the cam seals and crank seal but it still leaks. So a friend of mine who is an ASE certified mechanic agreed to tear the front of the motor aprt to have a look at this leak. We bought a new oil pump and got to tearing the car down.. I notice the crank seal is all banged up looking. On one of the three times i brought the car back to the shop after it leaked when they had replaced the crank and cam seals, they told me they again replaced the crank seal because the one they put in must have been "defective" . Anyway I get the car back and it still leaks. It really only gets leaking good when the car runs at any kind of rpms for a few minutes such asd highway driving. (3 speed auto trans) Can anyone tell me any tips on this job? Can someone host the photos of the seal I took today on here so i can post them up? I would like your opinions. We stopped today at the point where we will next be removing the crank seal. the car is all apart. We have been using a repair program he subscribes to on his laptop called "alldata" to do this job.

If the sealing surface on the shaft has a groove worn in it, you can put new seals on forever and it will not fix the leak. Find a seal that is either shallower or deeper, relocating the sealing surface to a nonworn part of the shaft. You may also be able to find a speedi-sleeve kit that places a sleeve over the shaft, accomplishing the same thing.

If the sealing surface on the shaft has a groove worn in it, you can put new seals on forever and it will not fix the leak. Find a seal that is either shallower or deeper, relocating the sealing surface to a nonworn part of the shaft. You may also be able to find a speedi-sleeve kit that places a sleeve over the shaft, accomplishing the same thing.

 

 

what shaft are you talking about? We noticed the oil pump shaft is somewhat worn looking and has some minor grooves in it. The new pump has a replacement shaft. This all seems somewhat odd as the car only has 33,000 miles on it.

You are allowed to add photos to the photo gallery here as a part of registration.

He's talking about the crankshaft. If theres any irregularities on the shaft, the seal cannot do its job. If the oil was never changed in the car it would certainly put grooves on the pump shaft. Is this a crate motor?

He's talking about the crankshaft. If theres any irregularities on the shaft, the seal cannot do its job. If the oil was never changed in the car it would certainly put grooves on the pump shaft. Is this a crate motor?

 

 

not a crate motor, its a 93 loyale owned by a local woman who traded it in on a new forrester. it has 33k original on it.

Crikey! 33,000 miles!

 

 

Unless this thing had NO maintenance, the crankshaft sealing surface should be in fine shape. I would bet that they put the seal in cockeyed, which will cause it to leak right away. The "banged-up" appearance points toward somebody doing a poor install with a drift punch, which makes it difficult to align the seal properly. They also could have deformed the seal using this install method.

 

Get a new seal and either a seal installer or a large socket to spread out the force you are putting on it and install the seal VERY carefully, paying particular attention to how straight it goes in the hole, and you should be leak-free.

ok I fixed (replaced)the crank seal and the seal surface was fine. The old seal was installed incorrectly and torn up. now a new problem ...the drivers side cam shaft we lined up the dots and it rotated smoothly by hand to line them up. We went to do the passenger side and its real jerky you cant turn the cam wheel by hand. It seems to get tight as we turn it. I pulled the valve cover off and all seems to look ok. The compression is 170 on all cylinders so the valves seem to be opening and closing properly. Any idea why it would be tight on one side and not the other? I would rather checkout the problem before just putting the timing belt back on and having more problems. can ANYONE HELP?

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really odd that you could turn the drivers side cam by hand.

 

should be like you describe the passenger side.

 

theres lots of spring tension to overcome and those lobes are steep.

 

something is odd in the drivers side imho

The lifters may have deflated while you had the oil pump off and the oil drained out. If the lifters are spongy, you would be able to turn it like that. Once the engine is back together DO NOT fire it up right away. Pull the plugs and dead crank the engine over till the oil pressure guage comes up to indicate that oil is flowing. This will inflate the lifters, and prevent the engine from eating itself when you start it for the first time.

i used a motor that leaked, replaced the rank seal. a week later it leaked again, thee was a burr on the crank snout from a previous seal replacement. i had to file and sand the burr. its possible the shop may have gouged the crank

 

i offset my seal so it would seal up slightly farther out on the crank, as there was a definate groove from the last seal.

 

i drove the seal about 1mm short of where it was and all is fine

How far did you turn the cams? There is a place in their rotation where they aren't difficult to turn because they aren't pushing down on the valves, and you may have just had the one cam within that range while you were turning it.