Oil leaking from rear main seal. Too much oil in there?

Brand new engine, new seals, new oil pan, probably only have about 200 miles on it. Oil is still clear. But when parked, it drips out the back pretty quickly.

I don't have a dipstick, so I just added 7 qts (7 qt canton pan) and drove off.

First, not sure why it is leaking in the first place.

Second, since it leaks when engine is off, I was wondering if the oil level shouldn't be that high so it reaches the seal???

 

Scott. You have a new engine, new seals and new oil pan. Put a new dipstick on your new engine. How are you estimating the leak so that you know how much to put back?

 

No room for a dipstick.

But when I filled it with 7 qts, I realized that if I stick my pinkie finger into one of the plugs on the top of the oil pan, I reaches the oil, so my pinkie became my dipstick.

So far has not leaked enough that I need to top it back off. But maybe lost a half cup over the past year of sitting. Not sure how much is coming out while it is running.

 

i would guess its a bad oil pan gasket seal over a rear main seal.
are you using an older 2 piece rear main seal block or a newer 1 piece rear main seal block?
did you use the one piece rubber oil pan gasket or the 4 piece cork and rubber gasket?

 

The oil is coming from the trans housing area, so I know it is from the rear seal, not the oil pan. It is dripping fast enough that I can clearly see where it is.

I used the one-piece rubber re-usable ones from Fel-Pro, with the metal in the middle and soft blue rubber elsewhere. OF COURSE, it would't hurt to retorque everything after the past year of running it after a fresh rebuild.

 

You still need to install a dipstick.

 

I have one in the dash, when the red 710 light comes on, I know the oil is low...

 

Also....all motors have an audible "detector" that goes off when the oil gets too low. Starts as a lite pecking noise. Gets louder the more oil you need to add.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about that!

 

Friend of the gal next door was peering under the hood of her POS Durango and neighbor said "is it maybe low on oil?" Reply was, "it's not my low oil knock, this is different"... Turned out to have a busted flex plate, she junked it...

 

from your sig ill assume you have a one piece rear main seal block. i wouldnt expect the rear main seal to leak when not running. on thing that may be a possibility is oil is leaking from where the rear main cap meets the block. i usually assemble these with a film of sealant on all the contacting surfaces to prevent oil from getting through.

as long as your sure its not coming down from the top of the motor, it sounds like you need to pull the transmission and try to see where the oil is coming from.

 

rear intake seal...
bolt holes in the crank flange for flexplate....

 

I used that type of gasket on my Falcon...and it leaked. I went back to the old school gasket and it fixed the problem. The new style might work if the engine was upside down on an engine stand when installed. Trying to hold a heavy gasket in place before getting the pan installed...gravity wins every time.

 

It was installed while upside down on an engine stand.

The transmission will come off in the near future for a converter swap (when weather dries up, but is still cool). I will get a better idea of where the oil is coming from then.

Until then, I might just retorque all the oil pan bolts and see if that fixes it, or at least slows it down.

 

Like u stated -- Re-torque the pan B4 taking anything down - got nothing to lose. Had a similar issue w/ my cast alum valve covers. Had to tighten them a couple of times after several heat cycles B4 they stop leaking.