Anyone out there have a good method of installing a rear main seal in a ford FE (this is for my F100 not the Cougar).
I’m on strike 2 trying to fix a leak at the rear main ( don’t even want to talk about the cam/lifter that went south the first time I started it).
Pulled it all apart after the lifter failed , new cam, lifters , springs , bearings , rings etc. Got it back in the truck runs great except the rear main is leaking quite a bit (enough that it starts flinging oil onto the collectors of the headers after driving it for about 30 minutes) .
The last 2 times I put it together the only thing that differs from the Ford Shop Manual is the offset of the seal at the main cap, they want about 3/8 inch I could not get the main cap to seat with that offset ended up with about an eighth.
I’m sure this is the issue…any tips on how to get the main cap to seat with the 3/8 inch offset?
Going to try and do this with the motor in the truck, I’ve already pulled it twice in the last month.
What year is the 390 ? I was remembering that some of the earlier ones had a rope style of seal and thus had a nub in the channel that would cause the rubber seal to deform and leak. A google search turned up a thread on FE Power that confirmed this.
Some stock blocks have a pin in the bottom of the seal bore to hold the original rope seal. Engine builders will remove this pin to install a neoprene seal, but often not do a good job, and leave a nub at the bottom of the seal bore. This pushes the seal out of shape, and can cause leaks.
I would verify that that nub is gone completely while the lower main is out. There are some other tips in that thread I believe as well, though I’ve not tried any. Mine leaked very slightly after running for a while. It was usually 3 or 4 drips after shutting it off and wasn’t enough to justify pulling everything back apart again so I haven’t tried more than just putting it together with the offset.
It is a late enough block that it didn’t have the pins, the link had some good suggestions.
If the parts get here this afternoon I’ll get it put back together tomorrow and see what happens, it its a couple of drips I think I’ll call it a victory.