Rear main seal leak
 

Well, I am told that my leak is from my oil pan, and my rear main seal. So, like a good little weekend warrior I opened up my chevy manual to see how to replace this thing. For some reason I thought you had to back the tranny off to do it, but my manual only says I need to take off the oil pan, then take off the seal cap. Is this right? It seems too easy, but then again the illistrations are not too good on this procedure.

Overall, how hard do you think this would be to do? I know I will need to drain all the oil out, take off the pan, take off the cap, replace the seal, and put the pan back on with a new pan seal and put in new oil. Am I missing anything? Will I need any special tools to get the old seal off and put the new one on?

Thanks!

Re: Rear main seal leak
 

Nope, you have it covered. It is not hard, just a PITA to have to drop the pan and all to replace a $5 part. Good luck.

Re: Rear main seal leak
 

Cool. My manual also says to use sealant around where the two bolts go in on the cap. Do you guys use sealant too?

Re: Rear main seal leak
 

Don't forget to get the torque specs for the cap bolts. Hate to have one of those get loose.

Re: Rear main seal leak
 

get yourself a one piece pan gasket from FELPRO it's well worth the extra money

Re: Rear main seal leak
 

Yes, just don't get any on the seal itself or it could effect its ability to seal properly.

Also, I found the diagrams from this page helpful.

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d800514cd.jsp

Re: Rear main seal leak
 

Cdowns has it right, spend the extra bucks on a Felpro one-piece. The other thing is if you do go for the one piece do not use any sealant, it's designed to eliminate the need for that mess. You can also take your pan back off and reuse the same one piece gasket. It's worth the dough believe me...

Re: Rear main seal leak
 

Oh and one more thing, make sure you know EXACTLY what your engine is and what year. You can find the engine code on the rear of your engine, drivers side below the cylinder head there is a flat casting. the number is there probably hiding under some grease. Once you get the number go here to find out all you need to know about your engine so you don't get the wrong gasket.

http://www.nastyz28.com/sbchevy/sblock.html