Pre Oil Seal?
 

Greetings and Happy Holidays!

I'm finally putting my 190D together and have a very important question. Do you pre-lubricate the front oil seal?

I took my front cover seal and crank pulley to a machine shop yesterday. I asked him if I need to pre-oil the seal and he didn't know. The seal doesn't look like a PTFE seal and doesn't have a spring. Please let me know if I should leave the surface dry or oil it.

Thanks:)

pack the rear of the seal with grease. That will lubricate the seal on start up and also prevent the spring from popping out on install.

Thank you for the reply!

The seal I installed does not have a spring. I looks like an older style seal. The machine shop I went to stated that if the seal is not made of PTFE then you don't pre-lubricate it.

The problem is I don't know if my old style seal is Teflon (PTFE) or not.

If it is not PTFE, do I leave the seal and sealing surface dry?

Every engine rebuild I did, everything, including seals got lubed with the white lithium grease or a dousing of motor oil, that way there was not a dry area at initial start up.

I used motor oil on the front seal on the 300TD 6 months ago. Still dry, no leaks.

Dave

There is no reason why lubricating the seal should hurt a thing.

Thank you all!

I guess a little oil can't hurt! Happy Holidays!!!!