Engine: 259/289 Rear Main Seal ID Help

[JoeHall]

OK, so I just removed the leaking rear main seal today, and hope to get the replacement back in today. But would like to identify what I have: The seal I just removed simply says, FEL-PRO 2 on the upper half, and FEL-PRO 3 on the lower half. The seal I have in my stash says, STUDE 530311 in the upper half, and STUDE 1550724 in the lower half. There are no other other identifying marks anywhere on any of the seals.

I am pretty sure the FEL-PRO 2 and 3 seal, I just removed is, is a recent repro, I probably got new from a vendor when I rebuilt the motor about 4 years ago. I still have the box, which has part number, BS 10053-1 on the end of it.

QUESTION: Can anyone tell me what the STUDE 530311 and 1550724 seals are? For example vintage and type, such as maybe BRUMMER?

The STUDE seal is in good condition, so I will probably use it, unless someone here has a reason not to.

Any info is appreciated.
Thanks Much

[Studebakercenteroforegon]

Without looking at my parts stash - only from memory - 1550724 is the seal half with the spaghetti strips attached, and the 530311 is otherwise the same seal without the attached strips. You can also use two of the 530311 plus the loose spaghetti pieces.
Way back when a rear main seal set had two 530311 seals plus one 1550724, plus a package containing two loose spaghetti strips and the two little cork filler blocks. This meant that two seal kits would do three engines, only requiring you to cut out a couple more of the cork filler blocks from piece of cork gasket material.

[JoeHall]

Thanks Jerry,
I think you nailed it. This seal does indeed have an extra, upper half (530311), and a small envelope with two loose spaghetti strips, and two cork filler blocks. I also found an instruction paper that had FelPro on it, and was dated 1979.

Actually, the modern repro I pulled out of the motor looks like a better design. It has slinger spirals molded into the contact surface of the lip seal. Think I am gonna clean the 1979 seals with alcohol, install them, and hope for the best.

Am also gonna install new main bearings, just because that will lessen any wag in the rear of the crank, even though the current bearing is well within spec. It only has about 36,000 miles on the rebuild, but new main bearings won't hurt.

[Studebakercenteroforegon]

When I was a college student I worked part-time at Courtesy Motors Studebaker in Corvallis, Oregon. Back then (mid 1960s) it was quite easy and inexpensive to order individual main bearings. We would always replace the rear main bearing whenever we did a rear main seal replacement. Reasoning was less oil leakage from the new main bearing made it easier for the seal to do its job.

[oilnsteel]

I have a related question. If I recall, excessive side clearance on connecting rod bearings can cause increased oil consumption because of the resulting bearing leakage will be thrown on cylinder walls, overwhelming the oil rings. Can this be extended to mean excessive crankshaft end play can cause the rear main seal to be overloaded?