Rear of Engine Oil Leak

[mjeansonne]

I crawled in front of the 62 Hawk w/289 V-8 in order to oil the bumper bolts, so I could remove them for body work.

While lying in front of the car, I looked under and saw a rather large oil puddle beneath the rear of the engine. I only started the car last week to put it in the garage and it has sat since. The engine always did leak oil from the front seal when I would drive the car, but somewhere in my feeble brain I am thinking that there should be another location (other than front and rear seals) that the engine could be leaking. Particularly since it is just 'sitting". So where would oil gather while running, only to leak out when the engine is not running?

Any thoughts?


Laisez le bon temps roulez avec un Studebaker

[Alan]

I have found that if you drill a small hole in the plate that holds the seal at the bottom of it, oil will not fill up and flow out from the felt seal. In the rear look for where the oil is comming from,If down the center or from the pass. side down the head.

[Roscomacaw]

Alan's got a good point there. (ya need some sorta hat, Alan! - just kidding![:I]) The way that topside leaks tend to drain down the back of the engine, alot of them are deduced as being rear main seal leaks. Even pan leaks can bring suspicion on the rear main seal.[xx(] Valve covers, valley cover, even the partial flow oil filter (if fitted) can cast aspersions on the rear main seal. All because the oil leaks rearward and down.
Imagine a scenario where one takes off the oil pan to change out that pesky rear main seal. In the course of things, a new pan gasket set gets installed! Wala! No more leaks now. Heh - we sure took care of that nasty, trouble-maker of a rear main, eh?[}]

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[Transtar56]

Or what can be even more fun is finding out you now have even worse leaks because you screwed up the new pan gasket (that didn't need replacing).
I always start with the valve covers,Ive found a few that had "bad rear main seals" that turned out to be nothing more than valve cover gaskets

[mjeansonne]

Thanks for the tips. I hate the thought of trying to change the front or rear seals on that buggy.

I remember back in 19 "O and" 79, I had a 54 Champion that I had to have one cylinder rebored and sleeved while in the car. After I put the oil pan on (with a new gasket) I drove the car from my folks to my home (about 3-4 miles) the entire engine compartment was full of oil, as well as the entire underbody of the car. Being rather angry[}] I immediately went out and bought a new Dodge Pickup. I notice a few days later, the Champ pan had quit leaking!!![:I] The gaskets needed time to swell and stop the leak I guess. Oh well.

Laisez le bon temps roulez avec un Studebaker