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.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

99 W210 E300 Turbo Diesel, chipped, DPF/Converter Delete. Still needs EGR Delete, 232K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Gone and still missed...1982 w123 300D, 1991 w124 300D

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

Dave

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1970 220D, owned 1980-1990
1980 240D, owned 1990-1992
1982 300TD, owned 1992-1993
1986 300SDL, owned 1993-2004
1999 E300, owned 1999-2003
1982 300TD, 213,880mi, owned since Nov 18, 1991- Aug 4, 2010 SOLD
1988 560SL, 100,000mi, owned since 1995
1965 Mustang Fastback Mileage Unknown(My sons)
1983 240D, 176,000mi (My daughers) owned since 2004
2007 Honda Accord EX-L I4 auto, the new daily driver
1985 300D 264,000mi Son's new daily driver.(sold)
2008 Hyundai Tiberon. Daughters new car

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