My 2nd gen T2 is leaking oil from the front oil seal. I need to add like a quart every couple hours of driving. Can anyone recommend any shops relatively close to central jersey for the repair? Also, anyone have an idea off the top of their head how much the repair would cost? Thanks.

 

Try JPR in south jersey.

 

sent pm!

 

Is it the front cover gasket? or is it leaking out of the front bolt inside the pulley?

If it's the front bolt you can do the repair yourself. Its a a cheap o-ring around the end of the bolt and you can use RTV instead of the gasket in a pinch. If its the front cover its more involved but still you can do it yourself if you feel confident with it. I was able to do my front cover gasket in about 6-7 hours with the motor in the car from start to turning the key to drive home. If you have questions I can fill you in over PM.

Total cost of parts from mazdatrix was like 88 bucks on the head for new gaskets and some new oil pan to engine bolts.

If you're not comfortable with it, take it to JPR.

 

it's leaking between the front rotor and the front cover. f1bluerx7, i'm curious about repairing it on my own, 'cause i had thought i would have to remove the engine/tranny from the car to work on it.

 

1. Push the clutch in and hold it in with a 2x4 or something the appropriate length (Very important)
   
2. Jack up the car.
   
3. Jack up the transmission right behind the motor so it's supported.
   
4. Drain the oil and coolant.
   
5. Remove the motor mounts from the block and the subframe
   
6. Remove the oil pan.
   
7. Remove the radiator
   
8. Remove the PS/AC and bracket.
   
9. Remove the Main pully (4 small bolts)
   
10. You may or may not have to remove the water pump. I think I had to cause it interfered with removing the main pulley and the front cover.
    
11. Remove the Front eccentric bolt.
12. • Use heat on the bolt. A propane torch should do fine.
    • Try to use an impact if you have one. I've seen some crazier *** people put a breaker bar on it and then hit the ignition and it'll crack the bolt loose. I don't suggest doing it that way.
    • It's very important that the eccentric shaft does NOT turn while the front stack is loose, it will cause perminant engine damage once you put the bolt back in.
    • If you havn't done it yet, you may want to take this time to do the front eccentric oil bypass pellet mod since it consists of 3 small lock washers and it will save your motor some wear and tear time.
13. Unbolt the drain line from the turbo.
    
14. Unbolt your front Oil cooler line from the front cover
    
15. Remove the front cover.
    
16. Clean everything.
    
17. Use Hylomar or Black RTV to hold the new gasket in place.
    
18. Re-assembly is the exact opposite of assembly.
    
19. Front eccentric shaft bolt should be re-torqued to 300Ftlbs or so. An impact would be easiest to use here. Or you could do the breaker bar measurement method.
    
20. Remember to use a new gasket on the front eccentric bolt or you will get an oil leak from there.
    
21. Make sure you have adequate crank case ventilation to prevent this from happenening again. Typically pressure in the crank case is what causes the gasket to blow out. The passenger side of the front cover has a long run with no bolts holding it. This is "fixed" (it can still blow out however) in the S6 motors by using a metal gasket.

Good luck, PM me or repost here with any questions and I'll try my best to help you out in case I left out any steps.

Forgot to add:

You'll need the following new gaskets:

Turbo oil return gasket.
Oil pan gasket
Front cover gasket
Front eccentric bolt O-ring

I forgot to mention this before, but the oil pan bolts only need to be torqued to about 13ftlbs. Any more then that and they snap.

 

Awesome! Thanks a lot. Could you elaborate a bit on the "adueqate crank case ventilation" (#21)? I don't quite understand.

 

Some folks will cap off the vents on the oil filler neck, or just run one of the lines to an unvented catch can. this causes pressure in the oil pan which can blow the seal out from the inside of the front cover. It's the weak point of the seals that hold the crank case together.

If you're looking at the oil filler neck and you've removed your vacuum rack and emissions then you need to cap the lower nipple and allow the top one to vent or the preferred method would be to run it to a vented catch can.

 

you forgot a key part to step #1.

After you have the clutch securely pushed all the way down, tap the eccentric shaft all the way back to make sure any play is in the back of the shaft and not the front so the needle bearings dont drop.

I did the same repair in a $500 n/a I bought from pittsburgh, it takes a little bit of time, and its a bitch with p/s and a/c, but its easier then have to pull the whole motor.

kevin.

 

There wasn't any play front to back with the stack tight when I did mine. Maybe with a high mileage motor (mine only had about 10k miles on it at the time) you might need to do that.

 

So I don't need to worry about anything if all my vaccuum rack and emissions stuff are still in?

 

Well it probably indicates a problem with a vac line failed/clogged somewhere. If I were you I'd just make sure the line at the top of the neck next to the cap is open.

 

its more of a safety measure then anything, mine had 30k miles, and no play. but i know a certain amount of endplay is within spec, so its a motor by motor basis.

kevin.