after changing the t/c on a 560sl , an oil leak sprung. It's located between the rear part of the engine and the tranny housing. After searching, I'm thinking rear seal because I both monitored both valve cover gaskets(new) and no leaks there. Could the rotating of the engine via wrench when installing the new chain started or damaged my rear seal? What else can I check?? The top half of the engine is obviously dry.....
Can this be done by just removing the tranny and pullingit out???
BTW.. it leaks very little before the t/c replacement. but now..7 in dia. please help....

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a2


1978 280 CE silver
1986 560 SL black
1987 300 SDL cream
1994 SL 500 brilliant green
1997 E 300d dessert silver
2005 FORD F250 Superduty Crew cab 4x4

____ADMU____

This does not sound very likely. Are you really sure that this is not one of the following problems (one of which is not a problem).

1. When I changed mine a few days ago, my RH exhaust pipe was smoking all over the place and there was quite a puddle in the garage. When the valve cover was off (and during the manual turning of the engine, which I did a lot of), quite a bit of oil had leaked backwards (my garage, like most, is designed to slope away from the house). At first, I thought that this was a valve cover leak. But it did eventually stop.

2. Unless your valve cover gaskets have been previously replaced (you did this), they are probably shrunken and hardened. I bought new ones for this project. The difference in feel is very significant. The old set (which leaked a little before removal as it was) certainly could not have been reinstalled with anything less than spectacular leaking. Note that I also bought the crush washers for the valve cover bolts. Shop around on these. The price differences between suppliers is amazing, and you should buy at least 8 (I bought 16) of them.

3. The valve covers are amazingly thin (I polished mine, and I swear half the thickness is the epoxy paint) and they do bend and distort. I would take the torque specs very seriously, and criss-cross slowly to get up to torque. 3 NM isn't very much, I used a 1/4" torque wrench and converted (I think this was around 25 in-lbs). Too much torque is very bad.

4. I know it's very hard to see towards the back of the covers (never mind the fun of installing them). Are you SURE that you didn't slip the gasket off in the back corner? I put a VERY SMALL amount of oil in the groove of the gasket to give a little vacuum grip to it.

5. You don't have anything pinched (like a wire or a chunk of something) between the head, gasket, and cover, do you?

6. The hose on the RH valve cover towards the back is tightened and in good shape? Connected to the air cleaner?


Doing the work I did was a great opportunity to clean my engine compartment, so any new leaks should be easy to spot.

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86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

that my rear seal won't just get shot overnight. I will definitely check the covers again. I did notice that 1 of the valve covers is warped. But because it never leaked like this before, I thought that it would just "seal" like before.

I will probably put dye in the oil and use UV light to search for the main cause of leak.

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a2


1978 280 CE silver
1986 560 SL black
1987 300 SDL cream
1994 SL 500 brilliant green
1997 E 300d dessert silver
2005 FORD F250 Superduty Crew cab 4x4

____ADMU____

You probably turned the crank from the front of the engine, so unless you used a bar against the flywheel to lock it while, or if you removed the front main bolt, there is no way turning the crank could damage the rear seal. However I have noticed that when you make repairs to these engines and bring the other seals back to a restored level, the weaker ones give out. Also if you have blowby, or a clogged crankcase. If your crankcase isn't ventilated properly and pressure or vacuum builds it can cause a weakened seal to fail. Unfortuanatly there is no way to replace the rear main seal without removing the engine or the transmission, preferably both, and then you are getting into all the MAW's! I would check your crankcase ventilation that it is properly routed and not clogged, check your compression to rule out blowby, maybe do a leakdown test, and then I would ensure that is where the oil was coming from. I lost my front main seal due to a crankcase ventilation problem, I am glad it was not the rear. Good luck!
B

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Brian W. Heitman

www.MBCA.org/northtexas

Join MBCA!!!

The car has good compression and was not leaking prior to the valve gasket change. It actually grabbed my attention when I placed the cover on the ground that it is not level. Due to it not giving me any grief before, I thought it was suppose to be "twisted". Comparing to the other side , the opposite side valve cover was "straight". I think it's coming fro the valve cover gasket not sitting properly . I'll try machine this part first. Then if it still continues to leak, next page. Thanks for the suggestions.

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a2


1978 280 CE silver
1986 560 SL black
1987 300 SDL cream
1994 SL 500 brilliant green
1997 E 300d dessert silver
2005 FORD F250 Superduty Crew cab 4x4

____ADMU____