North American Turbocoupe Organization



Rear Main Seal Sleeve Kit
The Rusty Chicken Offline
Junior Member
#1
My rear main seal is leaking like mad, about 1 qt every sixty miles. I installed a new rear main seal about 4,000 miles ago and it just keeps getting progressively worse. I am guessing that the shaft has a groove that is destroying the seal. It seems like their is more than one sleeve kit out there for the rear main and possibly some double seals that will work. Any suggestions on kits or installation advice will be appreciated.
Chris L. Klein
'72 Chevy Malibu
'88 TC
'92 Chevy Corvette
'08 Chevy Silverado
'08 Buell 1125R
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Pete D Offline
Administrator
#2
Wish I could help you. I had a sleeve installed on mine years ago. It slowed down the leak for awhile, but it soon turned out to get even worse than what you are experiencing. I don't know kit was used. I would like to hear more about what you find out. Good luck.
Pete Dunham


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The Rusty Chicken Offline
Junior Member
#3
Well I am getting pretty good at pulling the transmission out, this is the third time in four years. At least none of the bolts were difficult to get apart. The rear main seal looked perfect, tight on the shaft with no damage and no signs of leakage around the seal. It was immediately evident that the last oil pan bolt on the driver’s side was loose once the transmission was out of the way. So I torqued the pan bolt and checked the rest of which none were loose. I tried to pressurize the crankcase with my Mightyvac to spray with soapy water for leaks, but she would not hold any pressure. So I put her back together and fired her up only to be rewarded with a nasty oil leak and a fuel leak! The fuel is coming from a return line that was probably flexed just enough from the motor rocking to remove that last little sliver of rusty metal in just the right spot. Thanks to the fuel leak I could not get where I needed to go to find the source of the current leak. The oil is coming down the very back of the block on the driver’s side and it’s a heavy leak. I know it is not the oil filter itself or the valve cover gasket, but that is all I am sure of at this point. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Chris L. Klein
'72 Chevy Malibu
'88 TC
'92 Chevy Corvette
'08 Chevy Silverado
'08 Buell 1125R
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Jeff K Offline
Administrator
#4
Common driver rear leaks include the oil press sender, the "T" fitting there the oil press sender and turbo oil line attach to the head, and the turbo oil line itself, especially at the very sharp bend where the line attaches to the "T" fitting. Of course, valve cover gasket leaks are common as well, but you have already eliminated that as a possiblity.
Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 24 psi, forced air IC, water injection, BPV, Ranger cam, subframes, etc., etc.
86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP N2O, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.
11 Crown Vic Interceptor
14 Toyota Camry (wifes car)
95 Taurus GL Vulcan winter beater
67 Honda 450 Super Sport - completely customized
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turbobike Offline
Member
#5
Maybe the oil pressure sending unit? Some had the oil feed line to the turbo that runs on the back side of the motor.
85 TC,86 TC,65 Mustang GT
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Pete D Offline
Administrator
#6
On that side of the block is the manifold that screws into the head and the oil pressure sender and the supply line to the turbo screw into the manifold. The supply line can crack from vibration. The OP sender can start leaking. There is also an oil galley plug in the middle of the back of the head that have been known to leak.
Some types of head gasket failure yield oil leaks
Pete Dunham


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ianbfromct Offline
Senior Member
#7
I know I had sprung a leak that was on the back of the motor that was from the sharp bend on the oil feed line near the valve cover. What about tossing in that oil leak dye crap? I think u put it in beat on it for a lil bit pull over with a black light and find the source.
88 5 speed TC
-3" DP,lowered, 255 Walbro, Gillis valve, Cobra R's, bondo/rust, Stinger's PIMP Ecu
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1988turbotbird Offline
Senior Member
#8
I would add dye to the oil, drive it for a little while and then look for the source.
88 TC/HX35/CAI/3" exhaust/Wilson MS2/Beanman header/Head Work/Laramee Cam/Gillis boost controller/3G alt/Walboro 255 fuel pump/BOV/CHE rear control arms/1" lowered/poly. bushings/Chuck W mounts/6 puck clutch/Pro 5.0 shifter/AEM wideband/Tuning MS..
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ianbfromct Offline
Senior Member
#9
If its as bad as your saying drive it briefly and check. Ive been told that dye stuff runs out quick and you might not catch it. I used this stuff on my motor once http://www.amazon.com/Interdynamics-374C...l+leak+dye I got it from autozone thou and I didnt catch it quick enough.
88 5 speed TC
-3" DP,lowered, 255 Walbro, Gillis valve, Cobra R's, bondo/rust, Stinger's PIMP Ecu
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The Rusty Chicken Offline
Junior Member
#10
Well, we are keeping it interesting here. Fired her back up to chase the fuel leak and she wouldn’t stop cranking. So I took the key out of the ignition and let her crank until the battery died, time for another starter solenoid. These seem to last about two seasons for me, but at $20 a pop it isn’t worth trying to figure out why. The fuel leak was on the return line about three inches past the plastic to metal connection. Fortunately I have spare metal and plastic line so I cut out the rusty line, sanded the ends, cut some plastic line to length, fired up my heat gun, expanded the plastic ends, and slipped the metal line in about one inch. This worked like a charm, so back to the oil leak. Since the driveshaft and the trans crossmember were still disconnected, I dropped the back end of the motor down as far as she would go to give myself a good view of the back of the motor. I fired her up and immediately noticed a leak on the back corner of the joint between the block and the head, I could even see little bubbles in the oil. I checked all the turbo lines out and could not find any issues there. But I am just not convinced that the head is the sole source of the leak. Once the oil gets warm it is being slung out at a prodigious rate. So I sprayed that area of the motor down with engine degreaser and will be back out on her tonight to see what I can find. I thank the dear Lord for my winter Carharts!
Chris L. Klein
'72 Chevy Malibu
'88 TC
'92 Chevy Corvette
'08 Chevy Silverado
'08 Buell 1125R
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