93Euphoria

Just as I start to get comfortable I have a little fun. Maybe too much. Did a **** load of roll racing on 95 after a local meet and constantly hitting redline atleast 40-50 times in those races leading to oil pressure sky rocketing. Now when I got home, I did my usual check everything after abusing her. Found that the rear of the motor is leaking oil. Had 2 ideas and im hoping the easier route:

Rear Main Seal
Or rear of the oil pan

Already checked the infamous rear of the manifold and its perfectly fine. The car is an A4 and was wondering if taking off that aluminum shield in between the oil pan and the trans pan.

If it turns out to be the rear main seal, how hard of a job is it really going to be for a man with only a basic set of snap on tools? Tried doing a search and everyone wants to give vague info on how to successfully drop the tranny.

Appreciate the help.

Tom94TA

Have you been under the car yet to really see what's going on? With all the high rpm activity, a small valve cover leak could really make a mess. Are you sure it's engine oil? the trans could've puked some fluid.
Does the engine have any blowby issues? Ever had the dipstick pop out of the tube?
Clean it up and try to see if it's still leaking.

BALLSS

^^^^^ this

and if you do find it is rear main, you need to drop tranny, remove flexplate, replace seal......while not rocket science, it is a tedious job.

Ed Wright

iTrader: (1)

And if your oil pressure "skyrockets" at WOT, you need to correct that also. Should be no higher at 7000 than at 2000.

93Euphoria

Yes Ofcourse, its motor oil. Its gold/brown, not red. As far as every other seal I checked valve covers & they are dry. Dipstick has never popped out of the tube.

Lol dont get too hung up on my terms, just figured my oil pressure is usually higher than everyone elses. I run 5.5 quarts of 5w-40 Full Syn. Oil Pressure is around 30-40 @ 2000 & around 50-60 at 5000-5800.

93Euphoria

Well today I had some time to check the leak. Took the torque converter pan cover off and to be honest with a flash light its hard to tell if its either the rear main or the back of the oil pan. There is a small oil leak also in the very front of the oil pan right under the opti. I had my oil pan seal replaced almost a year ago and it looks like the knuckle head who did it put RTV on the sides of the pan but didnt bother putting sealant on the front or rear. I heard that on LT1’s RTV does more harm than good. But than again its only leaking on the parts that have no RTV. Any suggestions on what I should do as far as the oil pan leak(s)? Take the pan off apply RTV on the leaking parts, get a new gasket and apply no RTV W/ the right torque specs (BTW what are the TQ specs on the oil pan?), or just attempt to replace both rear main seal (DRY) & oil pan seal at one?

superspirit

Get a high quality felpro gasket and install it with NO rtv. since the rear main seal would require a tranny pull, I'd put it back together and drive it and see if it is actually leaking before I replaced it. I dont know what oil you run, but I have had Castrol gtx high mileage swell and cure a rear main seal leak.

BALLSS

OP

doing a pan gasket or RMS is no small task. I would confirm wtf the leak is first and then repair.

your pan was off/replaced at some point???

if RTV appears on the rails of the gasjet vs the corners front & back....that is suspect as you would do the opposite.

while the FelPro gasket is very good, IMHO I would/do use RTV (black ultra) on the corners front/rear

Given either job is..well tedious, I would spray/clean off motor and use an oil dye to confirm where the leak is. FelPro gaskets/seals are very good

F0x Slaughter

The problem with High Mileage oil it is does cause seals to swell. By doing that they weaken the sealing, and leak worse over time.

There is no quick fix for anything.

superspirit

Well it lasted for 40,000 miles. but I agree there is no quick fix. if you want it done right. and I didnt switch to fix the leak. I bought the truck with 120,000 on the clock and it was leaking a little, changed the oil and went with castrol high mileage for choice and noticed a week or two later that it wasnt leaving quarter size spots over night anymore.