Hello,
I hope you guys can give me some advice on where to go from here regarding a leaky rear main on a freshly rebuilt 292.  I pulled the motor from the car last fall and had the motor rebuilt with a neoprene rear main seal.  A few weeks ago, I put the motor back in, and had the car hauled to a mechanic for the initial start and tuning.  The car runs beautifully.

I put 200 miles on the car since and have been noticing an oil leak from the rear of the engine that appears to be getting progressively worse.  I jacked up the front of the car to change the oil and investigate the leak.  At first it appeared that the rear oil pan bolts may have been loose so I snugged them up, cleaned the underside of the car very well, and took it for a short drive.  Once back in the garage I went to grab a fresh piece a cardboard to place under the car to verify the leak was corrected, and in the two minutes it took me, a puddle about 4 inches in diameter had formed.  Once again, I jacked the front up, removed the dust cover from the clutch assembly, and ran the motor.  Oil is clearly coming from the rear main seal. I needed safety glasses to keep from getting sprayed in the eyes while underneath!

My question is not so much how to repair the rear main seal, I am curious as to what you folks think is reasonable for me to expect of the shop that rebuilt the motor.  The rebuild shop did not, nor do they pull motors.  Should I be expected to pull the motor again to bring it in for them to repair the seal and then install the motor again myself?  I do not have the spare time anymore to dedicate to wrenching on the car like I did last fall and spring.  Should the shop that rebuilt the motor be required to foot the bill for all the labor of having the seal replaced?  I have not talked to the rebuild shop yet as I wanted to get your feedback first.

Thank you

I'm going to wait for more experienced folks to chime in on most of the questions. But to let you sleep, I've replaced rear mains with the engine in the car, most recently one of the soft "orange" seals on a 312. Others here have done it also. But that's a really big leak as you describe it.


I had one like that from the seal retainer insalled wrong. My guy made good on it.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

You don’t say what chassis this engine is in which is a consideration in fixing the seal with the engine in the car.  From your description of the leak itself, it sounds like one half (or possibly both halves) of the seal is installed backwards.  Easily fixed but the oil pan must be removed to get there.
 
You’ll need to talk to the shop that did the rebuild and discuss the options for that shop to fix the oil leak.  If that shop doesn’t pull engines, then they may be in the position to at least work on the engine while it’s in the chassis.  Again, you do need to discuss this with them.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks guys for the responses.  I went to visit the rebuilder today and was relieved to hear that he is 100 percent committed to making it right.  Without any prodding, he suggested I take it to my mechanic and he would work directly with him to cover the costs to correct the leak.  By the way, it is a 59 custom 300