Rear main seal

GeneralWee · Post by **GeneralWee** » Sun Apr 03, 16 10:51 am

Just doing the rear main seal - turns out mine has rope seal - anyone changed to rubber seal? Possible without removing crank? Or a supplier of rope seals in uk?

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Mon Apr 04, 16 9:01 am

I changed from rope to rubber and found that the rubber was no better than the rope.

for rubber to work in a rope seal housing the housing needs to be concentric with the crank.
which it won't necessarily be if the block has been align bored.

if it isn't concentric only rope will work or you need to do a shimming job on the rubber on the side with most space

best rope seal I had was from bestgasket in the states.

they don't list for 383 400 440 but a 392 hemi one would probably fit. they are generous with the rope

this is a rope seal with a kind of putty in the middle.

you can pull them in if your rope seal housing has not been drilled for a small pin to hold in the current seal or dinged to many times with a punch to achieve the same.

whack in the rope with a big socket until you get less than 24 fllb turning
Force increase on the crank

trim with one of those extending craft knives with the snap off in section blades

rest lolly stick against crank to avoid nicking it

you need a cereal box cardboard of thickness standing proud above cap face or block face

so you cut a section of card the shape of the cap face with a cut out the size of the seal channel to go round the protruding end of the seal.
place it on the cap face
put you lolly stick down the back of the seal against the crank and rest the knife on the card spacer saw away inwards gently until you cut into the stick

its a pain but ive now done it 4 times and to be honest I pretty happy with my performance this last time

Dave

GeneralWee · Post by **GeneralWee** » Mon Apr 04, 16 2:00 pm

Yeah - thanks Dave - got another rope seal on order - has been fine for 6 or 7 years. Don't remember putting pin through it. Think my sump gasket and windage tray may have been causing more leaks than the seal actually - will it make much difference not having the windage tray - only gets used on the street and new sump has a baffle in it.

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Mon Apr 04, 16 3:55 pm

windage tray is really just making your crank lighter. cuts the whirlwind of oil fug off the crank, i.e makes the air/oil cloud it spins in less dense (thick)

won't make much difference to how much oil gets thrown out of the rear of the bearing at the back at all and doesn't really help with sloshing oil in the sump right up the back of the block when you take off.

baffled sump may well help with oil slopping right up the back of the crank and seal when you accelerate

if you think it is other things leave the seal alone....its a horrible job

the thing you use to pull in a rope seal is called a sneaky pete

these guys do the bestgasket seals

both rubber and rope

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Falcon-Sales-e ... 7675.l2563

Dave

GeneralWee · Post by **GeneralWee** » Tue Apr 05, 16 8:44 am

If I leave the windage tray in, I will have to dose it up with sealant to get it to seal between the block and sump gasket, which i don't like doing. Had to rebuild a chevy that was full of RTV that someone stuck it together with. Rope seal has only done about 5000 miles. Going to replace the easy half of the seal and put new sump and gasket on, see how it goes - if no better then plan to do the whole job and get sneaky pete too. That's the plan

GeneralWee · Post by **GeneralWee** » Sun Apr 10, 16 10:38 pm

Well, it is better, but still puts a couple of drips out when it stops - fine when running.. hmmm