Leak?


#1

About 3 months ago I put a new rear main in along with my new clutch for the start of the season. Everything has been fine until last week. I think I may know what the issue is, but am looking for confirmation that maybe others have had a similar issue.

Last season, I installed the crank scraper and baffle. I had a hell of a time putting the pan back in with the engine in the car. I knew there may have been some spots where the RTV might have gotten messed up.

So, I bought this shock tower brace. I was told to jack the car up and see if the towers sagged and allowed it to install. Yup, no such luck. While just the front end of the car was jacked up, that was when I noticed the oil spots under the car. I took the inspection cover off and looked all over. There doesn’t appear to be any oil on the flywheel, or much of anything in the transmission (maybe a film). However, the pan appears to be wet.

Could it be that while having the front jacked up let enough oil go toward the rear that it began leaking through the shoddy pan sealing? It hasn’t leaked a single drop until this week when the car was jacked up. I would REALLY REALLY hate to remove the transmission again to fix a rear main seal leak again.


#2

Could clean the area really well with the inspection cover off. Then try to make it leak and see if you can’t figure out precisely where it’s coming from.

Local autoparts store probably has some UV oil dye that could help.