Looks great Jared. Dont fix all the oil leaks, you'll eliminate the self servicing rust protection feature!
Texas82GP's Roadmaster
- Thread starter Texas82GP
- Start date
Very nice work Jared. I feel your pain about reaching all of the spark plug boots. I've had to get into many places like that over the years. I hope you didn't leave any DNA traces in there. I was looking at the photos that you posted of the plug wires. Are there plastic shields over the spark plug wire boots for the rear spark plugs?
Thanks Joe. We don't need that kind of rust protection here. I hate leaks. Must eradicate!
Thanks Jeff. I'm sure there is a little of my DNA under that hood at this point. Those 90 degree shields on the boots are galvanized steel. They are on both of the rear two plug wires.
Ah yes, I forgot! Must be the rust forming on my brain! 😁
I had to transfer them from the old wires to the new ones. You could definitely go find them in the salvage, assuming the car either never got new wires like mine or if it did, the shields were retained when the wires were swapped.
I worked on the Roadmaster all weekend. I guess I just need to come to terms with how slow I am. Saturday I got the spark plugs on the passenger bank changed. I got all the plug wires removed on that side and got three of them installed. I guess I needed to take the car apart some more for that job. I guess I needed to pull the alternator, the power steering pump and the bracket for them and the a/c compressor. I had a hell of a time with it. I ended up cutting (accidentally) the #6 wire so that stopped me cold on that. I also got the distributor installed and the balancer hub pressed on. Here's Saturday night's progress pic....
I should note that the extra screw (at about 12:30 in the picture above) that MSD includes with their cap to help clamp it shut was a little too long. It was hitting the timing cover and wouldn't let the distributor sit flush against the timing cover. I had to buzz it flush with the aluminum clamping block with my Dremel and then the distributor went on like it should.
Sunday was spent under the car. The past four or five weeks, the car has been sitting on stands in the front. I noticed some drops on the floor under the engine and transmission a few weeks ago so I put the big plastic drip tray under it. I also quickly wiped off the torque converter cover, the oil pan and the transmission pan. They got wet again and the plastic tray started looking pretty bad.
Sunday morning I started with taking pics of the problems. I think I have two or possibly three leaks at this point....
I'm certain the shift shaft seal is leaking. I think it is the biggest source of the leak. I think the transmission pan gasket may have been leaking too but I'm not sure. I think the oil on the torque converter cover is transmission fluid in this next pic, running forward from the back. The back or transmission side of this next picture is to your right....
Unfortunately, there was definitely oil on the oil pan....
After my inspection and taking pictures, I pulled the torque converter cover. Here is a look up between the flexplate and the oil pan. I didn't get the light in there good enough on this picture and I could have done better on the angle. The oil was concentrated on the center of the front edge of the pan, at the bottom of the arch in the rear seal carrier....
It didn't look to me like there was a lot of oil on the bottom of the rear seal carrier itself so I'm thinking this is an oil pan gasket leak. Here is a look at the inside of the torque converter cover....
So I'm dealing with an oil pan leak, a rear main seal leak, or the gasket for the rear main seal carrier is leaking. Next I pulled the oil filter adapter and then I cleaned it, the starter and the torque converter cover. The starter is new and I wasn't liking how dirty it already was (not bad but oil is not good for the starter)…..
Then I did a bunch of cleaning of the pan rails behind the crossmember, the back of the oil pan and some of the rear areas of the block. I also did some cleanup of the oxygen sensor and oil level sensor wiring as they were pretty oily....
Here's the best picture I got of the back of the pan/rear seal area after cleaning.....
Once I got it all cleaned up to my satisfaction, I retorqued the oil pan. One of the rear corner bolts tightened up a bit, maybe 1/4 turn. Pretty much, the bolts were all to spec so I'm trying not to get my hopes up on that fixing the leak. I'm going to watch that area above over the next several days and see what it does. Changing the oil pan gasket is a bit of chore as you have to jack the engine up to get the pan out. Still, I'd rather it was the pan gasket over it being the rear main seal or rear main seal carrier gasket as those will require pulling the transmission. LT1 experts, please chime in on what you think it is so far.
Next I pulled the shift linkage off of the transmission, cleaned it up and then cleaned the area around shift shaft seal. Then I dropped the transmission pan to clean it and install a new filter and gasket. Here's what inside the pan looked like....
Here's what came off the magnet....
I wasn't shocked or disturbed by what I see. It has 105k miles on it and if it has been serviced, I think it was a long time ago. The gasket stuck to the pan badly on three of the four sides. I think it might have been leaking on one side. What do you guys think? Are you bothered by the amount of mud off the magnet?
I replaced the transmission filter and sealing bushing. The bushing gave me a little trouble as I don't have the puller tool but I got it out pretty cleanly. I got the pan back on and torqued the bolts to spec....
That's where I stopped last night. Let me know what you guys think about the engine oil leak and how the magnet looked inside the pan. I'll probably go check on the back of the pan in a day or two. I hope I don't see any oil but I'm not getting my hopes too high. Hopefully I'll have a good update. Thanks for following along friends.
--Jared
I should note that the extra screw (at about 12:30 in the picture above) that MSD includes with their cap to help clamp it shut was a little too long. It was hitting the timing cover and wouldn't let the distributor sit flush against the timing cover. I had to buzz it flush with the aluminum clamping block with my Dremel and then the distributor went on like it should.
Sunday was spent under the car. The past four or five weeks, the car has been sitting on stands in the front. I noticed some drops on the floor under the engine and transmission a few weeks ago so I put the big plastic drip tray under it. I also quickly wiped off the torque converter cover, the oil pan and the transmission pan. They got wet again and the plastic tray started looking pretty bad.
Sunday morning I started with taking pics of the problems. I think I have two or possibly three leaks at this point....
I'm certain the shift shaft seal is leaking. I think it is the biggest source of the leak. I think the transmission pan gasket may have been leaking too but I'm not sure. I think the oil on the torque converter cover is transmission fluid in this next pic, running forward from the back. The back or transmission side of this next picture is to your right....
Unfortunately, there was definitely oil on the oil pan....
After my inspection and taking pictures, I pulled the torque converter cover. Here is a look up between the flexplate and the oil pan. I didn't get the light in there good enough on this picture and I could have done better on the angle. The oil was concentrated on the center of the front edge of the pan, at the bottom of the arch in the rear seal carrier....
It didn't look to me like there was a lot of oil on the bottom of the rear seal carrier itself so I'm thinking this is an oil pan gasket leak. Here is a look at the inside of the torque converter cover....
So I'm dealing with an oil pan leak, a rear main seal leak, or the gasket for the rear main seal carrier is leaking. Next I pulled the oil filter adapter and then I cleaned it, the starter and the torque converter cover. The starter is new and I wasn't liking how dirty it already was (not bad but oil is not good for the starter)…..
Then I did a bunch of cleaning of the pan rails behind the crossmember, the back of the oil pan and some of the rear areas of the block. I also did some cleanup of the oxygen sensor and oil level sensor wiring as they were pretty oily....
Here's the best picture I got of the back of the pan/rear seal area after cleaning.....
Once I got it all cleaned up to my satisfaction, I retorqued the oil pan. One of the rear corner bolts tightened up a bit, maybe 1/4 turn. Pretty much, the bolts were all to spec so I'm trying not to get my hopes up on that fixing the leak. I'm going to watch that area above over the next several days and see what it does. Changing the oil pan gasket is a bit of chore as you have to jack the engine up to get the pan out. Still, I'd rather it was the pan gasket over it being the rear main seal or rear main seal carrier gasket as those will require pulling the transmission. LT1 experts, please chime in on what you think it is so far.
Next I pulled the shift linkage off of the transmission, cleaned it up and then cleaned the area around shift shaft seal. Then I dropped the transmission pan to clean it and install a new filter and gasket. Here's what inside the pan looked like....
Here's what came off the magnet....
I wasn't shocked or disturbed by what I see. It has 105k miles on it and if it has been serviced, I think it was a long time ago. The gasket stuck to the pan badly on three of the four sides. I think it might have been leaking on one side. What do you guys think? Are you bothered by the amount of mud off the magnet?
I replaced the transmission filter and sealing bushing. The bushing gave me a little trouble as I don't have the puller tool but I got it out pretty cleanly. I got the pan back on and torqued the bolts to spec....
That's where I stopped last night. Let me know what you guys think about the engine oil leak and how the magnet looked inside the pan. I'll probably go check on the back of the pan in a day or two. I hope I don't see any oil but I'm not getting my hopes too high. Hopefully I'll have a good update. Thanks for following along friends.
--Jared
Well, it's 25 years old and has over 100k on the clock so none of it is a big surprise. You'll probably be doing the pan gasket -- because we all know you won't be able to sleep knowing it's like that. 😏
Oily starter and converter cover can also be valve cover or intake gasket .
