Amazon: Neoprene Crank oil seal

[steve1200gs]

Hi Folks, I hope someone will be able to help me please. I replaced my real crank oil seal today for the more modern housing and neoprene seal (Brookhouse). I made sure the gasket surface was cleaned and applied a new gasket and some sealant. Despite my best attempts to centre the housing it appears to have a larger gap on the right hand side (3 'o' clock position). Will this cause a problem when running? Have I missed something critical when installing ? Thanks in advance.

[Ron Kwas]

Steve;

When installing Rear Main Seal Cover during an engine build, this cover goes on before Oilpan, so circumferential spring inside Seal will tend to self-center the Seal...but when removing/replacing Rear Main Seal Cover with Oilpan in place, there is sideloading of the cover because of the Oilpan and gasket...this will cause non-centricity of Neoprene Seal...that's not good, and will lead to failure or non-sealing. In this situation, it is recommend to center seal/cover on Crankshaft with shims, before locking in place with hardware.

Cheers

[steve1200gs]

Thank you Ron. The oil pan is not attached at the moment. I used a metal rule to make sure that the new housing fitted flush with the bottom edges of the block. I lightly tightened the bolts, starting at the bottom.

[richo122]

Even without the factory sleeve tool it's usually easy enough to centre the new seal. Nipping up the cover screws alone shouldn't give the cover any chance to go skew whiff.
Perhaps another go at replacing the cover would be worth a try.
I used no sealant on gasket surfaces recently, it's holding up okay.

[Ron Kwas]

Steve;

I understand one would be tempted to align the cover bottom surface with block bottom surface...but that is not what's critically important here!...concentricity of the Seal on Crankshaft clearly is! ...I'd target this preferentially, let the bottom edge of Housing fall where it may, and let Oilpan Gasket and sealing goop do its job there!

Cheers

[steve1200gs]

Thanks Ron, Im going to give it another go tomorrow.

[arcturus]

Don't despair, I have had my B16 out three times trying to sort oil leak from felt seal ,rear crank shaft.