Hello fellas,

I currently have my motor pulled. Resealing the oil pan to get rid of some oil leakage for one thing. Or at least that is where I think the leak is. I noticed some oil at the lower part of the engine rear wall. The rest of the wall is covered in a thin layer of oil.
I suppose some oil could have gotten in there from a leaking oil pan and then slushed around. So..

Is this likely to be the rear main seal and/or the rear o-ring?

Tried to take some pictures of it but it is hard to see the oil in the pictures.

View of the puddle

Another view of the puddle


Top view:



I hate to put the engine back in the car and discover that it is still leaking. On the other hand, I looked in the FSM and changing those seals seems like a hassle. A lot of special tools were used...

So what do you guys think?
Thankful for replies.

 

If you have any suspicion that you have a leak, and for no more than either costs, why not? I don't recall needing any special tools. It's an 'O' ring and seal. Nothing particularly special or difficult. A seal remover and intaller are nice, but IMO not absolutely necesary. I've used a small sheet-metal hammer and the old seal on top of the new to tap it in.
I'd also re-torque the tension bolts.

 

Change it. You have the motor out. It is only a few more minutes to change it and prevent a leak.

 

Well that 54 mm hex nut requires a special tool by my book. Need to think of some good way to lock the flywheel somehow. I guess I realize how when I try.

Thanks for the input! New parts are on the way.

 

If you have a heavy duty impact you don't need a flywheel lock to take out the nut. The socket can be found in Sears. Mine was less than $30

To reinstall the nut you need one guy with a huge breaker bar holding the back of teh flywheel still and another person with a huge breaker bar and tighten as much as you can. then up to whatever the ridiculous torque setting is in the FSM. I think its 300 ft lbs.

 

there is a kit out there you can buy or even make if you have seen it before that locks down your flywheel in place so you can get at that big nut. the nut is torqued to 350 ft lbs, hope you have a good impact gun

 

You probably won't find a 54mm socket at Sears, but you will find a 2 1/8" socket... functionally the same. It will be a 1" drive. So IF you have an impact gun, you'll also likely need a step down adapter to a 1/2" drive. If you don't have either, try driving the engine down to the local trusted mechanic. He'll have the impact and maybe even the socket and should be able to get it off easily. Regardless, it does appear you have a seal that's sweating. It's not hard or expensive to deal with now. And it won't heal itself.
And again, once you have the FW off it doesn't cost a thing to re-torque tension bolts. Actually, I'd consider replacing, or at least re-packing a little grease on the pilot bearing and a new rear transmission seal (<$8) too.

 

Have a small cheap impact gun, the workshop idea seems wise. Finding Sears will be a problem as I am located in Sweden. Know a place where I can buy a 55mm combination spanner for 40$. Others have had success with that one. If I put my full body weight on the right spot on the spanner I will get the correct torque. Will see if I need a workshop for removing it.

I'm definitely taking SgtBlues advice on the tension bolts. I have an AT so I will see if there is something similar to do with its input shaft.

Thanks for further input!

 

Short write-up on how I got the 54 mm nut of. I have an AT so the flywheel is easy to get off, but the counterweight is held by the 54 mm nut. Since the counterweight only is a half circle it was easy to jam it with a piece of wood cut to the right size and with one tilted edge, see picture.

The second problem was to get enough torque. I used a 55 mm combination spanner that I could find for a reasonable price. When I put my 85 kg at the end of the combination spanner I just tilted the motor. Therefore I instead put my weight at the UIM and a slightly heavier friend put his weight to the very end of wrench. With some shaking and jumping it moved.
I also put some WD-40 on the nut two hours earlier, perhaps that helped.

Well that was my way of tackling the 54 mm nut.

 

why not just have an impact to back it out? the engine is out anyway, took me to back mine out in less than a minute of 450 lbs of force.

even easier to torque it back to 350 lbs. just need to mark 2 points with magic marker on the 54mm apex.

 

Basically because you need an impact gun for that. And to my understanding, just any impact gun wont do. And then you need to buy the socket, I couldn't find that cheaper than I found my combination spanner

 

You think the FW nut is something. Wait until you deal with the hub bolt.