rear main seal install tool
06-06-2006, 12:37 PM
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rear main seal install tool Hey guys, I borrowed a main seal install tool from a local dealership so I can hopefully stop my oil leak. My question is should I loosen the bolts up on the rear cover a little so the install tool can center the cover on the crank? I did not use anything to center this cover when I did the motor swap which I think is causing my oil leak.
06-07-2006, 07:44 AM
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Todd,
I think that you have posted a picture in the past of the W2W Rear Seal Install Tool. Maybe you could post the picture again and maybe a couple of other pictures showing the tool in use. Most folks probably don't install what is involved in properly getting the double lip seal over the rear flange of the crank without folding the inner lip over or mis-centering the rear plate. The rear plate needs to be flush with the bottom of the engine where it bolts to the pan and centered (equidistant left-right) around the crank. Either of these errors can cause a leak.
Who knows, if people better understood this, it might stimulate tool sales!
All my best,
Steve
I think that you have posted a picture in the past of the W2W Rear Seal Install Tool. Maybe you could post the picture again and maybe a couple of other pictures showing the tool in use. Most folks probably don't install what is involved in properly getting the double lip seal over the rear flange of the crank without folding the inner lip over or mis-centering the rear plate. The rear plate needs to be flush with the bottom of the engine where it bolts to the pan and centered (equidistant left-right) around the crank. Either of these errors can cause a leak.
Who knows, if people better understood this, it might stimulate tool sales!
All my best,
Steve
06-07-2006, 12:47 PM
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I personally think that you could install the seal in the rear plate without a special tool as follows:
1. take a thin metal object with no sharp edges (like a screwdriver, feeler gage, etc.) and place the seal over the rear crank flange
2. carefully ease the inner seal lip over the flange by gently pushing forward on the seal/plate and going around the circumference of the flange with the blunt, thin flat tool of your choice
3. once the rear plate is against the rear of the block, the seal will keep the seal and plate assembly centered in a concentric fashion around the flange.
4. put the plate bolts in finger tight and then tighten the bottom (through the pan bolts) first followed by the bolts that go through the block. The torque specification is 18 pounds feet as I recall).
What do you guys think?
BTW, the Kent More (GM Factory) tool and any other tool design basically is a tapered cone that fits on to the rear flange and then pulls the seal into the rear cover over the cone that progressively expands the inner diameter of the seal without folding it over.
Notes:
The front and rear cover should be oiled prior to installing the front or rear seal, but the lips of the seal and the front snout or rear flange should not have any oil on them in order for the seal to properly wear in and seat/seal properly. Always make sure in that the front plug (freeze plug style, outboard of the oil pump discharge on the left side of the engine) and/or the rear dumbbell shaped plug (with the O Ring end going aft toward the cover on the left side of the engine) are properly in place prior to installing the cover. Check this at least twice and maybe have someone else check it too.
All my best,
Steve
1. take a thin metal object with no sharp edges (like a screwdriver, feeler gage, etc.) and place the seal over the rear crank flange
2. carefully ease the inner seal lip over the flange by gently pushing forward on the seal/plate and going around the circumference of the flange with the blunt, thin flat tool of your choice
3. once the rear plate is against the rear of the block, the seal will keep the seal and plate assembly centered in a concentric fashion around the flange.
4. put the plate bolts in finger tight and then tighten the bottom (through the pan bolts) first followed by the bolts that go through the block. The torque specification is 18 pounds feet as I recall).
What do you guys think?
BTW, the Kent More (GM Factory) tool and any other tool design basically is a tapered cone that fits on to the rear flange and then pulls the seal into the rear cover over the cone that progressively expands the inner diameter of the seal without folding it over.
Notes:
The front and rear cover should be oiled prior to installing the front or rear seal, but the lips of the seal and the front snout or rear flange should not have any oil on them in order for the seal to properly wear in and seat/seal properly. Always make sure in that the front plug (freeze plug style, outboard of the oil pump discharge on the left side of the engine) and/or the rear dumbbell shaped plug (with the O Ring end going aft toward the cover on the left side of the engine) are properly in place prior to installing the cover. Check this at least twice and maybe have someone else check it too.
All my best,
Steve
Last edited by Steve Bryant; 06-08-2006 at 08:28 AM.
