Oil leak

[mat]

Having painstakingly rebuilt my 1.3s engine, I am distressed to find it leaks! Its quite possible my care is insufficient, but any advice gratefully received. I am fairly sure the leak is from the front crankshaft seal, which I had replaced, it certainly doesnt appear to be the block/crankcase. Is there a common trick to ensure a best fit to prevent this? The loss is quite small, but annoying and a clean engine now has a dirty film along the front! I have checked the dip stick fitting too!
thanks
mat

[racing]

controll the waterpump. Can be that the oil comes from there.
It has on the bottemside a hole to aviod the water comes in the engine
if the seal inside is worn.
Sometimes the dubbel sealed ball bearing let the oil past in the direktion
of the water side and then the oil comes through this hole.

Andreas

[lucasb]

After replace of the crankshaft seal on my berlina, it took some weeks to stop the leaking.
So perhaps a little patience will help. The oil level should not be above max

[Huib]

I have switched to double lip Viton seals some time ago. They are expensive but effective and last a long time.

If a customer comes in with a small oil leakage through the front crankshaft seal I no longer replace the seal. Instead I put in Millers full synthetic 10W60 engine oil with 3 esters. It works all the time. Note that it is important to use the one with the 3 esters. They also have one with 2 esters which is the normal number of esters in synthetic oil.

In the early days of synthetic oil nobody used any esters in the oil. This resulted in leakage through the seals. When they added esters leakage problems disappeared. Ester molecules lubricate the seals very well.

You say you just rebuilt the engine. The piston rings may not yet have run in. Combustion pressure may leak to the sump which pushes the oil through the seal. If this is the cause, the problem may disappear when you have the engine run in.

[VAR1016]

Good point Huib; I have found that all Fulvia engines do "pump" somewhat; I have always thought this to be due to the geometry of the engine.

Also, the crankcase breathing is in my view inadequate - and obviously the works thought so too since they added extra breathers!

Paul

[mat]

Many thanks for the advice. I have put new rings on it , but have run in now, perhaps I am too impatient. I will try the oil soultion and am tempted by the Viton option - any idea where I can get them? Or the accurate dimensions of the seal (and the rear one!)
I have a new water pump so I really hope that is not the cause!
thanks
mat

[Bart Verbeek]

Have you polished the surface of the pully not at all - or to hard?

[Ed Levin]

Huib,
Other than its "anti-leak" properties, how well does the Millers full synthetic work in a Fulvia enigne?

[Huib]

What can I say? I do not have the equipment to do any sort of scientific measurements and comparisons.

I mainly use it in clean engines with low / nil oil consumption because of the high price. This means in rebuilt engines with seals on the valve stems and nosed 2nd compression rings. The engine of Tina, my daily driver, has done 150.000 km after rebuild and is still like new inside. If I change oil I pour in 4.5 liter leaving 0,5 liter in the can. When this is used up by topping up and the level drops a few mm below max I change oil again. This is after 30.000 km usually.

And then I use it in engines where the owner complains about a bit of leakage. That is if the engines don't burn a liter of oil every 500 km.

Engines run very well.

[lancialulu]

Huib

I thought you were a stickler for annual/2000km oil changes which ever occured first??

I use castrol 15-60 fully sythetic but have not checked the esters - will do....

On the basis of little oil consumption I believe you can run fully sythetic for longer.

Any other views?

Tim