so, i have an oil leak. seems to be between the timing chain cover and oil pan. the seal is pushed way out, i can see the whole thing. any suggestions on changing this>? truck has 155k. what else should i do while i change seal? was figuring pull front dress and timing chain cover and do it that way. do i need a timing chain or anything ese new while im in there? cam syncro geaR>

 

By "the seal is pushed way out, i can see the whole thing." I assume your talking about the pan gasket. If its the stock gasket, It could turn in to an ordeal. Since the oem is a pretty stiff gasket, count on it breaking apart when you separate the timing chain cover. Pretty sure the trans will need to be dropped to do the pan gasket. If your talking about the front crank seal, no worries. Thats pretty straight forward. I wouldnt go through the trouble of doing the chain, just replace the seal w/ the timing cover still on the truck.

 

Wirelessly posted

What he said I did my pan seal and it was a pain

 

hmmm. ill try and snap a pic. i dont THINK its oil pan gasket. i hope not. how could i change the other seal without pulling timing chain cover

 

Just pull the balancer and the pully and your looking right at it. Do this underneath the truck, not from the top. The seals just presses in from the front, no real reason to remove the whole cover.

 

fml. its the oil pan gasket...

what now?

 

The pic isnt coming up right for me, but I know what a pushed out gasket looks like. I have a five speed, the reason my trans had to be yanked was that there is a plate in front of the trans that covers part of the oil pan. Not really anyway around it. I think your auto, take a peek underneath yours to see what your dealing with. Either way, I think the trans is still coming out. When you do this, your not taking the pan out from under the truck. Its just going to rest so you can pull the old gasket out. Its about as fun as it sounds... sorry to hear.

 

so pretty much drop trans, leave motor as is, and ill have enough room to snake a new gasket in? its an 01 2wd auto

 

I replaced mine w/ a flexible silicone gasket. I was able to just stretch it around the rim of the pan. Where your gasket is pushed out, can you see any of the holes where the bolts thread through the gasket? If not, as a last ditch effort, you might just try to loosen the pan up and push it back into place. I'd say its worth a shot, and if its works, you just saved yourself a giant headache.

 

so you didn't have to drop the trans? I may have to do this soon as well.

 

I had to replace the gasket on the 94 I had a few years ago. I cleaned the heck out of the trans, pan, crossbeams and every thing around the pan. Then I dropped the pan as much as I could, pulled the old gasket out, cleaned the mating surfaces and worked the new gasket up around the pan from the bottom. I used zip ties to hold the gasket to the pan until I got it all the way on. Push it up, clip the ties one at a time and inset the bolts. If you get it clean enough first it goes pretty good. Mine went on without a hitch and never leaked up until I traded it in on my 06. The FelPro gasket streached enough to go over the pan fine.

 

Oh no, my trans had to come out. At the time, my pilot bearing had blew up and I also has an oil leak, so I replaced everything in there while I had the truck down.

 

so i decided to unbolt front of pan and push the seal back in. then covered the front with right stuff gasket maker.

thanks for the help guys
and i see someone suggested that after i did it lol

 

Good stuff, glad it worked out

 

I was gonna tell you that. I don't know why your factory gasket pushed out unless it wasn't factory. I used silicone to reinstall my timing cover and should have used HI TAC. I ended up doing what you did, siliconing that baby up. I have a leak at present but it seems to be coming from the harmonic balancer seal. I can't figure that out. I musta missed something. The cover has dowel pins. I have to pull it and do the repair. Gonna be interesting. I must be gettin old. I never had redos before. Oh Well.

Cheers,
Gene

 

I pulled the harmonic balancer off the truck and removed the front lip seal. It didn't look bad but that can be the only place it was leaking. The lip seal does not fit very tight (on the harmonic balance sealing area) but the fit is not worn. I mic'd it. Maybe .001" but that's about it. Now with a small amount of crush on the lip seal and a little misalignment on the timing cover, you have a recipe for a leak.

You know what I"m gonna do....I just thunk of it. <idea !!> I'm gonna mic the distance from the Outside diameter of the shaft to the housing bore on the timing cover. This will tell me if I am exactly on center. With the lip seal as loose at it fits...I doubt It can tolerate more than a .005" to one side. I'll probably be pulling the damn timing cover. We'll see.

This son of a gun thows out some oil I tell ya !!

Cheers,
Gene

 

Further checking the lip seal fit was off .010" to one side. It doesn't seem like much but the lip seal did not fit very tight and I'm assuming it may have opened up on one side allowing a leak path. I disassembled the the timing cover and redid the whole thing. I had a timing cover gasket set and believe it or not, the lip seal (FelPro was fit much tighter) After checking, I couldn't do much about the fit being offset (dowel pins) but I did push it over to on side as far as I could. I might have gotten is centered up a bit better I didn't check. I took all it would give me.

Hopefully, my oil leak will be stopped now.

We'll see. I just wish I could complete something so I can move on. My VW has been apart since March. The motor is almost ready. No telling what I am going to run into with that thing.

Cheers,
Gene

 

I've been driving it a week and I'm skeered ta check it out. LOL Still high idle and rough idle but I'm whittlin her down. Not much more parts ta change fer shur. LOL