eventoday Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 ok so i have a 97 sub outback 191000 miles. recently had to do a valve job so had engine out. while out i replaced all seals. 80000 miles later i am noticing a pretty big oil leak on the back side of the engine. where the the exhaust pipes come together. so is there anything other than the rear main seal that could be leaking. i do not want to have to deal with it again. and if it is it can you replace it with the engine in the car. one more question. i really don't want to do it again. would you think it is going to be an expensive job? thanks i love this site jake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 need to verify it's definitely oil leaking. are you loosing oil? is your trans fluid okay? (if it was an automatic the torque converter seal would be in the same area). valve covers, head gaskets, rear cam seal, oil pan....are you sure it's not one of those? as a side note the only rear main seals i've seen leak are the ones that have been replaced. the rear mains on subaru's very rarely leak, i can't think of any factory installed ones that i've seen leak, it's always been ones that were replaced. so my question is, when the motor was out did you replace the rear main seal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leotrp Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 I would check your rear cam seals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dssenne Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 okso i have a 97 sub outback 191000 miles. recently had to do a valve job so had engine out. while out i replaced all seals. 80000 miles later i am noticing a pretty big oil leak on the back side of the engine. where the the exhaust pipes come together. so is there anything other than the rear main seal that could be leaking. I was leaking oil from what I thought was a rear main seal, but when I got underneth I noticed fresh oil on the underside of the valve covers. Appearantly it would leak from there and blow farther back, making it look like it was leaking from further back on the engine. Cleaned it up underneth & now there's no more leak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 yep, lots of stuff tends to drip, flow, blow back to the same area. let us know what you find. helps to clean everything really good and check periodically after that before it gets so messy that it's hard to tell where it's coming from . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferret Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 Oil Separator. On your engine it was plastic, replaced now by metal. Unfortunately you have to separate the engine / tranny to get to it. It's on the passenger side rear of the motor. Someone here may have a picture or engine drawing of it. This usually drips from the lower bell housing and is mistaken many times for a rear main seal, which also can be the culprit. Inexpensive part.....expensive to replace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon38iowa Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 okso i have a 97 sub outback 191000 miles. recently had to do a valve job so had engine out. while out i replaced all seals. 80000 miles later i am noticing a pretty big oil leak on the back side of the engine. where the the exhaust pipes come together. so is there anything other than the rear main seal that could be leaking. i do not want to have to deal with it again. and if it is it can you replace it with the engine in the car. one more question. i really don't want to do it again. would you think it is going to be an expensive job? thanks i love this site jake I am currious as to what the symptoms are of bad valves; That is what your issues were leading to the valve job? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commuter Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 Oil Separator. On your engine it was plastic, replaced now by metal. Unfortunately you have to separate the engine / tranny to get to it. It's on the passenger side rear of the motor. Someone here may have a picture or engine drawing of it. This usually drips from the lower bell housing and is mistaken many times for a rear main seal, which also can be the culprit. Inexpensive part.....expensive to replace. Ditto. This was my thought as well. If you did not replace the plastic one wth the metal one when you did the work, it probably has "given it up" by now. Commuter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sea#3 Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 Oil Separator. On your engine it was plastic, replaced now by metal. Unfortunately you have to separate the engine / tranny to get to it. It's on the passenger side rear of the motor. Someone here may have a picture or engine drawing of it. This usually drips from the lower bell housing and is mistaken many times for a rear main seal, which also can be the culprit. Inexpensive part.....expensive to replace. Diagram #5 Sea#3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPX Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 A comparison of my old motor's plastic plate and the new motor's aluminum plate. Interesting that the old motor's rear seal has held up quite well - especially considering I went through 2 front crank seals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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