My TR6 has two primary leaks. First was from the front of the engine on the lower end, Second is right near the serial number stamping on the non-compression side of the cylinder head gasket.
I decided to attack the front lower end of the leak in a multi prong attack and see what I could do to end the drip. The problem was that there were many places where the engine could leak up front. To fix these, you essentially have to go after the leaks with a shotgun approach. Hit them all to fix the real culprit.
The usual suspects are:
- Stock front sealing block is aluminum. Can't torque it correctly. Also bolt holes penetrate the internal engine areas and allow oil out the threads.
- Front oil seal will groove the sealing sleeve on the crank and create a drip.
- Timing chain cover has 12 bolts/studs and a very large gasket which can leak.
- Oil pan edges get deformation from years of use and the warped edges are hard to seal.
My plan to seal this was a new oil seal, gasket set, modern steel sealing block and seal the entire thing using Hylomar sealant to ensure a good seal throughout.
However, when I dug into the engine, I found the real culprit. What I found was that two of the top two studs no longer had nuts securing the cover in place. Oil and crud had built up around that edge and had just been pumping down the bottom edge of the front of the engine for the past who knows how many years. (blue arrows pointing to my problem) Oh yeah, Lock nuts on those studs now to ensure no problem in the future.
After finding that, the rest of the job was really just a matter of cleaning up, stripping down, repainting parts, and then reinstalling with new gaskets and a slather of hylomar. The results are not a single drop from the front or bottom of the engine since the job was done.
Here are some photos from the rest of the job.
