NHVett

After looking every place else for the source of my car's oil leak, I finally bit the bullet and jacked the whole car up 18 inches, cleaned all the oil off the undercarriage and engine, and let her run for 20 minutes while I lay underneath looking for leaks. There it was, the front main seal, dripped about a drop every three minutes at idle. I know what the cause is; When I put the balancer on the last time, I noticed that it was slightly grooved, but hoped that the new seal would hold. Now after around 3 k miles it has started to leak. Has anyone here ever replaced the front seal with the engine in the car. Pulling the balancer is no problem for me, but I'm not sure how well the seal comes out without a punch and hammer from the back side of the timing gear cover. I think that I remember somewhere seeing a small slide hammer hooked type of seal puller. Anyone have any experiance with this?

AquaMetallic94LT1

I don't think you need to replace the seal. The grooved balancer is the problem. There is supposed to be a sleeve that can be pressed on the balancer. Check the condition of the balancer also. It might be better to get a new one.

NHVett

I've seen the sleeve kit. When I bought a seal a few months back the guy asked if I wanted a sleeve kit seal, or just a seal. It seemed that the seal kit with sleeve used a slightly different sized seal. If that's true, then possibly just putting a sleeve in still won't work. Guess I'll go to the parts store and check it out. Thanks for the idea.


[Modified by NHVett, 9:15 AM 9/6/2001]