I poured a bottle in awhile back, to see if it indeed WAS the rear main seal. While I was under the GS fixing the shift cable thingy, I decided to get my little ultraviolet flash light and look around, WOOOOOOOOW Little bit here (pan gasket) Little bit there (OPSU) Oil pump area BONE DRY Removed convertor cover to check rear main seal, BARELY a yellow tell tale sign, pretty dry, NOT what I expected to see being I DO NOT OFFSET THE NEOPRENE SEAL ENDS. Reason I dont offset the ends is because I cant, the seal groove I have punch marks to hold the seal in place, If I were to offset the seal ends, how is the seal going to rotate to self align the ends together to maintain the offset? I know I wouldnt be able to get the angle of offset perfect for both halves, then installing it, the seal would prevent the cap from seating as it should. A wee bit from my rear oil line for my oil gauge. So I thought about sealing technology, then and now, whats different?? Oil pan gasket back then was a wide paper, cork and rubber. Now, there a thin round rubber seal applied to a rigid metal gasket "frame" Same with timing cover gaskets today, Intake gaskets as well Same theory as a skinnier tire has better traction on slippery surfaces, more load on that narrow tire verses a wider tire, the thin rubber seal has alot of pressure on it to seal verses our wide gaskets
I am struggling to see how a hydroplaning condition be it due to narrow or wide tires and the amount of tread that they have to evacuate water from under them has any relation to gaskets sealing, because beyond a certain crush point a gasket is guaranteed to leak some! Not to mention that there should not be any oil under either side ofva new gasket being installed. Also this is why many gaskets are made with steel ring crush limit spacers!
Gaskets for newer cars are generally O/ ring type, the O ring seals from much more pressure claimping it than does a wide cork gasket
