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The RedBurb

Every Part Is Replaceable
I bet the pan gasket is fine.
The main seal is probably leaking

You might be right actually. Drove the truck around for a bit and it’s definitely the front main/crank seal that’s leaking, not the pan gasket. Which isn’t cool because I replaced it.

At this point I’m going to have to walk away from it and not drive it on this trip.

There are worse things.
 
So my next question is this: if that’s all it is, how imperative is it that it gets fixed right away? Is it feasible to leave it alone, make this road trip this weekend (leaving tomorrow), and then change the oil in 2000 miles and drop the pan to add silicone then?

It's very feasible to leave it alone. As long as you don't run out of oil, the engine won't care how fast it's leaking out the ends. So if you need to add a quart every 200 miles, go for it. If it's more like a quart every 2000 miles...you may find you don't even care.


A 30-mile test drive would give you a good feel for how big of a problem you have.
 
OTOH, my brand of reckless road tripping has lead to a few moments like this:

20180817_094843-jpg.275527


YMMV. ;)
 
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It's very feasible to leave it alone. As long as you don't run out of oil, the engine won't care how fast it's leaking out the ends. So if you need to add a quart every 200 miles, go for it. If it's more like a quart every 2000 miles...you may find you don't even care.


A 30-mile test drive would give you a good feel for how big of a problem you have.

I thought about that but, to me, it appears to be enough of a leak that I don’t want to risk it. It’s alright to drive around town, but I’m going to fix it before I take it out of town. Kinda of why I had hoped to fire it up a week ago, so I would have time to trouble shoot stuff like this.

Did you check its fit against the new balancer? Did you put it in with the rubber dry or lubed?

You’re the second person to ask me about the figment. I did lube it, but assumed that since I got a 6.5 seal to go on a 6.5 balancer that’s going in a 6.5 block onto a 6.5 crank, that it would’ve fit. Maybe I assumed wrong lol.


OTOH, my brand of reckless road tripping has lead to a few moments like this:

20180817_094843-jpg.275527


YMMV. ;)

I’ve been there. This was before I even got the truck home on purchase weekend. Belts broke, and while I thought I had the right tools with me, I didn’t. We were within 100 miles from home, so AAA to the rescue. Perhaps should have clued me in?

7E4E391C-6188-47D9-9D70-7CE436C4D0A8.jpeg



I don’t consider it a complete failure. The truck runs, and runs pretty good as far as I can tell, and we are talking about a day’s worth of work or less to fix these two leaks. There’s just not enough time to do it before this trip. So while that’s disappointing, I consider the whole thing a success. :saweet:
 
Took the truck for a little test drive today and have a few thoughts:

1. The new intake system is definitely different. Much louder, but it is a really sweet sound. I can really tell a difference in the engine’s response too. It’s much happier now that it breathes better.

2. The A/C still works really good.

3. Definitely not taking it out of town until I fix the two leaks. They’re pretty bad.

4. My transmission shifting issues are NOT fixed. I was wrong about the shift points I mentioned earlier. It’s 1-2 @ 8mph, 2-3 @ 20mph, and 3-4 @ 35-40mph. Really I’m fine with those shift points, but here is where the problem comes in:

If I get on the throttle, like stomp on it or try to down shift from 4th to 3rd at highway speeds for passing or climbing a grade, it totally throws the shifts off. Before all this work, whenever this happens, 1-2 shift would not be until 20mph or higher. This time, I couldn’t even get it to shift out of 1st gear. The quick fix is this: park the truck, shut it off and open the hood, grab a screwdriver, push down the TV cable “D” button and pull the adjustment sleeve all the way out, then push it all the way back in, then reset the TV cable by bringing the throttle to wide open. This simple technique resets the shift points to the above-referenced numbers, but it doesn’t permanently fix the problem.

Now, for simple daily driving, I’m okay with taking it easy and not getting on the throttle. It’s not a race car after all. BUT, I do know that when I get my Dana 60 done and start taking it off road, there WILL be the occasional need to get on the throttle, and I don’t want to have to deal with this every time. So I would like to get this rectified before that day comes.

Any thoughts?

@Greg Ducato ?

One option I’m considering if I can’t figure this out is switching to a full manual valve body. Obviously I’d like to keep the automatic function for daily driving, but I need to develop a permanent solution to this. Would kindof be funny if I did, because a manual trans is what I WANTED to install to begin with, but people talked me out of it. If I go this route I’ll end up with a manual anyways.
 
Now, for simple daily driving, I’m okay with taking it easy and not getting on the throttle. It’s not a race car after all. BUT, I do know that when I get my Dana 60 done and start taking it off road, there WILL be the occasional need to get on the throttle, and I don’t want to have to deal with this every time. So I would like to get this rectified before that day comes.

And I feel like a goof, because I thought about this some more and remembered that I can just shift into the lower 1st and 2nd gears when off road. Duh.

The manual valve body is still on my list of considerations, but not a priority right now.
 
Pulled the oil pan back off.

At this point, I’m about 98% confident it’s the pan that was leaking. I pulled it off, and felt my way around the crank seal, and detected no trace of fresh oil from the crank seal....or oil at all. The front pan seal, however, was definitely leaking.


Working on scraping the gasket off the pan now. Will reseal with Right Stuff, and let cure over night before adding oil and test driving.


Will post up results tomorrow.
 
Hopefully that will solve the issue!

You and me both. Sealing an oil pan twice in a 7-day period is not exactly my idea of a good time.

It’s in. Now just waiting for the silicone to cure. Testing tomorrow afternoon.

I am really ready to be done with this stuff and move on to a different project.
 

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