y-man

In a previous thread, I posted that I had oil leaking into my bell housing, but I couldn't tell if it was the oil pan gasket, rear cover, or rear seal. I ran the motor with just the flywheel to see if I could find the source of the oil leak. As best as I could tell, the source is somewhere below level with the middle of the crank. It doesn't appear to be the rear main seal, but there is oil that will pool on the small lip of the oil pan gasket and which will eventually waterfall off the lip into the bell housing. The only thing I could see was that if you're looking from behind the motor, the lower left two rear cover bolts appeared to have oil seeping down from the bolt/bolt hole. I decided to remove the rear cover to inspect where that may be coming from.

What I found is that the rear cover gasket near these two bolts was slightly compressed (see picture). I'm not sure it was enough to prevent it from sealing. Can this be the cause of the coil leaking from the two bolts? I also noticed that the rear oil galley plug was slight above flush with the block (see picture). The GM manual says that this should be installed so that it's slightly below flush with the back of the block. Would this be where the oil is leaking from? Should I just push it in or remove & replace it? I have a new one on hand. Can anyone tell from the picture if this is the old style or the new stye? I heard the new one (which I have) stopped the backing out problem some people were having. I'm not sure if this is what's happening. My oil pressure is great (slightly over 60psi even at idle) so it's holding some pressure. If I should replace it, what's the best way to get the old one out? I plan on replacing the rear main seal, rear cover seal, and using a crap load of RTV where the rear cover meets the block and oil pan.

Any other ideas on where the oil can be leaking from or steps I can take to prevent it?

Thanks for the help!
Matt

1BADAIR

iTrader: (1)

Is there oil in the pilot bearing hole? The crank plugs on some aftermarket cranks have been know to leak but I haven't heard of a stock crank leaking there

y-man

1BADAIR, the pilot bearing hole is bone dry. I do have a stock crank too.

I'm thinking that since the two bolt holes that I know had oil dribbling down from them are outside of the rear cover gasket, the oil must be leaking past the gasket and out those holes. What I don't know is if that's just the normal oil that is there or high pressure oil leaking from the rear oil galley plug.