mgs
[Top] [All Lists]

TD's leak oil? /13

To: Geoff Love <engconn@pottsville.infi.net>
Subject: TD's leak oil? /13
From: Jarl/Carol <deboer@pacbell.net>
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 19:07:41 -0800
Geoff Love wrote:
 the seal between the rear
> bearing cover and the sump gasket, a crude asbestos rope type, has not
> been correctly fitted, or has become dislodged during re-assembly.
> These seals are awkward to fit properly, and time must be devoted to
> their correct placement, or you will get what you have, a pourer, not a
> dripper.
> The correction is to remove the sump pan, and rework the rear oil
> slinger/rope seal gaskets. It may be necessary to fit a new oil slinger,
> and mate that by hand lapping to the crankshaft in order to obtain as
> oil free a union as possible. There is also a new proprietary rear oil
> seal on the market which will work better then the rope type. A word of
> caution, however.  Make sure that the fault indeed lies at the rear end,
> and the leak is not caused by some other problem such as a leaking oil
> transfer pipe to the cylinder head.  This will be obvious by visual
> inspection, when the motor is running.
> If you have any further queeries, contact me directly. I speciallise in
> the restorations of these treasures and, while I don't know everything,
> I do know a bit and will be glad to offer you free advice.
> 
> Geoff Love, The English Connection.

Free advice is worth what you pay for it! I don't like to disagree, but
Geoff has so many things wrong here, I really have to comment. There is
NO asbestos rope seal at the rear of the XPAG engine, there IS one at
the front. He's talking about the rear cork pan gasket. You cannot
"remove the sump and .... fit a new oil slinger" and expect things to
work. In order to properly fit a new slinger, you MUST remove the
crankshaft. The problem with the slinger (actually the Archimedes spiral
of the crankshaft) is usually more related to wear of the rear main
bearing cap after years of running with worn out main bearings. You
don't "lap the slinger", you fit it with even clearance all around,
realizing that it only seals the top half of the spiral (the worn main
cap is the lower half). After fitting, you drill for dowels and install.
While the external pipe that feeds the rockers is a possible source, a
MUCH more likely source is a poorly installed core/freeze plug at the
rear of the rear cam bearing. I've pulled pans on engines such as yours
and found the plug lying next to the flywheel.... One other thing can
make T types leak like a sieve when there is NOTHING WRONG. If the oval
vent plate at the top of the bell-housing is installed upside down, the
"turbine" effect of the flywheel/clutch creates a vacuum and sucks the
oil out of the rear main. There is a slot at one end and when installed
correctly, it actually slightly pressurizes the area and helps keep the
oil in. 

We can all agree: you didn't get what you paid for-a properly rebuilt
engine. However, ALL engines have foibles, I wouldn't know the tricks to
make a Chec 283 "live" and the best Jaguar mechanic in the world hasn't
had the chance to learn what the particular problems of a TD would be.

Jarl de Boer  (493 T type engines later)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>