I love my 1955 Buick Super Coupe, white over red over white, and soon to be wearing authentic Kelsey-Hayes 40-spoke wire wheels with my 4-inch gangsta whitewalls. But, the one thing that really irks me are the oil leaks. In fact, that was the reason I rebuilt the engine (that and the fact that I had a dead cylinder). I only have one leak now, after the rebuild, my mechanic tells me that it is from the rear main seal. Apparently it uses a kind of rope seal/gasket. Figuring that it was installed incorrectly after the rebuild, I have him replace it a few months after the rebuild. (Which was a hassle, he tole me...dropping the rear end, pulling back the drive shaft & trans). Apparently he even doubled up on the gasket/seal in hopes that it wouldn't leak. But it still does. (I don't know if this is related, but I had the oil pump rebuilt at the same time of the engine and ever since, the oil pressure is high for about the first 10 minutes of driving, then it goes down to low/normal.) Any solutions? Anyone ever have the same problem? Thanks!
Rope seals work fine when properly installed. I would say your mechanic don't know how to do it right. there is a few tricks to it. I would suggest you find another person to do it right. I have no idea what he mean't by "doubling" it. slot only will fit the seal once and very tight at that.... Your oil pressure is normal. Should be higher when engine is cold.
If you have a shop manual, BMD states that there wil always be a small amount of oil dripping under the motor. This should be a very small area under motor, where oil drips onto floor, and should not be cause for alarm. The straight eights and early V8 have always done this. Jim Schilf palbuick
BMD was making excuses for the assembly's shortcomings in the manual. The public was not as critical with cars workmanship as they are today.There is no excuse for a rope seal to leak if care is taken when installed. The biggest dificulty is getting the two ends of the seal properly matched. This takes triming the seal to about an 1/8 to 3/16 inch to long and installing the bearing cap, then removing cap and trim more with a razor blade. After doing this carefully a couple more times one can see by the indents made in mating ends of the seal that the fit is good. A little gasket cement on tips of seal for insurance and final instalation and it will never leak a drop. I have done many in this manner over the last 45 years with 100% success.
Gotta agree with all especially Pirate. There is no room for doubling the seal. But check it out. I thought my rear main was shot for a long time. I even bought the seal twice but was too lazy to climb under to replace it. Then one day I realized it was the oil filter leaking and running down the engine so it looked like the rear main seal. Replaced those gaskets and the leak is gone. I saw something on E bay once. It was a metal seal for the oil filter housing. It looked like the same type of seal used for the intake manifold, stamped steel with a compression ridge built in. The seller claimed this was used on nailheads and is required to prevent leaks when the oil filter housing is removed or replaced, as the new gaskets can't handle the oil pressure. Don't know if that's true. Maybe someothers have real life experience on this? JD
EBAY... seal There is a guy here in Portland oregon that makes or has someone make a 2 peice rear main seal made from neoprene. (rubber) It costs less than 30 bucks too and instructions. As far as pulling the trans?? Just remove the motor bount bolts, lift motor up as high as it will go above the frame. Then put wood blocks under the mounts and lower it down.... remove oil pan, take off rear main cap, remove old seal..the upper part in the block is a little tougher... they sell a "sneaky pete" which is a stainless steel wire with a screw in the end so you can screw it into the seal, and pull out the seal while cranking the engine by hand. If thats too hard, then loosen all the main caps, let the crank lower by 1/16th of an inch, then the seal slides out. install new seal to the top side of the rear main, and cut off excess leaving just a little (1/16") bit sticking out. A new razor blade works great. then push the new seal into the rear main cap, cut off excess leaving about 1/16". Install real main, retorque, install oilpan, add oil.. lower engine,,reinstall mount bolts and your done... Seems difficult, but quite easy. Auto ramps (drive up) work perfect for this. dont forget to set the ebrake! Good luck.. PS: I have replaced my main seal with the rope seal, and there is no room to instal 2 seals, and if you did, it would create enough friction to either tear the seal, or to polish the crank down. (seen it) then you have to regrind the crank which means overhaul! EEK :Smarty:
