myslo50

I tried posting yesterday but it said a moderator has to review it. Maybe cause I'm new to the sight. Idk. Quick rundown 97 lt1 fresh rebuild standard bore with a hot cam ( don't hate) installed. Since fire up 3 weeks ago I can't get an oil leak to go away. Ive searched the net for 3 weeks and tried a few different things and it's still leaking oil. I've ran dye in it a couple days ago and I took pics with a us light and it's leaking from the opti seal. It's not leaking from the water pump seal it's not showing any dye under the us light. I've replaced the opti seal 3 times since I've fired the motor 3 weeks ago. Just this last seal change I bought a reman Delco opti thinking the rotor what machined wrong on the old opti causing the leak. Guess what, it's still leaking. I'm at a loss. I'll try to post pics again and hopefully it will let me post them. Any ideas?

myslo50

Here is a couple pics

BALLSS

well the UV pics show what appears to be Opti seal vs WP drive seal (way more common to leak) leaking

that seal and WP drive seal are PTFE seal....you don't oil/grease them.

weird...is there any witness mark in the opti slot where cam pin goes that shows it bottoming out in that hole?

myslo50

I didn't oil the seal at all. I put the opti in dry. Only lube was on the o rings on the tip of the opti shaft.
Measured the cam dowel pin and it measures .394". I also have a pic of the witness mark on the opti. The whitness mark doesn't even go half way into then hole

myslo50

Here's the pin on the opti

BALLSS

Weird. I have a stock AC Delco opti, Delphi and a MSD that I have used and never a leak at that seal. I have always used FelPro TC seal/gasket set when doing the seals

Have you measured your oil pressure?

Maybe if it is uber high you are pushing oil through the seal????

myslo50

According to the dash gauge roughly 40 psi and as it warms up it drops a little. I haven't put a manual gauge on it. I think the rebuild kit was just a standard rebuild kit

BALLSS

I asked about oil pressure since this is a fresh build. Didn't know if you put in a HP pump

40 psi is fine

you can see better than we can in pics and it looks like there is no sign of oil from WP drive seal.....although that is the most common front engine leak source

Was there any trace down front the front intake?

oil migrated down so could be showing up on the Opti seal area

I have actually never heard of a Opti seal leaking. I assume it has happened but given 3 seal & 2 optis replaced and still there....IDK but it may be coming from somewhere else (above).

I also used a oil dye test chasing a leak I thought was RMS and after replacing the RMS and still leak I did another oil test but drove longer (like 10 mi instead of just letting the motor warm up) and pulled tranny/clutch again (PIA) to find the RMS housing gasket was where it was leaking. More PIA to fix that with motor in car.

That's just an example of you need to ...well now triple check and the dye kit will certainly help

myslo50

The pictures I think are upside down for some reason unless they change when you click on them. The one picture is the water pump shaft and under the uv light there's no sighs of leakage. When I pulled the opti out I made sure nothing touched the seal when removed. So the oil on the seal was from when it was running.
I don't believe it's a hp oil pump that was put in it. The motor didn't need to be bored out. Just honed polished crank new bearings and rings. New oil pump timing chain set cam lifter spring combo. So basically it was just a refresher. So I would imagine that a standard oil pump was put in. The guy why did my engine is supposed to come over Wednesday and take a peak at it. One of my other threads I was inquiring about if there was a speedi sleeve made for the opti thinking the seal might not have enough pressure on the opti shaft

now is there different size opti seals? The seaIs been getting are in the timing cover gasket set by felpro. the seal says "national" stamped on it with a part number. Is there a different seal available I could try?

BALLSS

no there are not different seal sizes. IDK what GM used. I have always used the FelPro front timing cover seals

40 psi is fine regardless of what type of oil pump was put in or even if they put in high pressure spring in a stock pump.

So if the oil is coming through the opti seal...? were all front oil galley plugs put back in block. IDK thinking out loud and if not I would assume that would greatly affect oil pressure which is fine by your gauge

This is weird but given this started happening on a fresh build and the seal and opti have been replaced...something from the build may be causing this but I don't know what would.

Hopefully the builder can FIO

I get what you asked about a speedi sleeve and how that would be a tighter fit within the seal. Speedi sleeve are used to go over shaft/seal things because of the shaft getting grooved and seal will leak. The sleeve gives it a new surface as you understand correctly. I am not aware of a speedi sleeve for the opti