After many months of work, '83 T-Type running... ok...

N

nothingman

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Well folks finally after many months of working on and off thanks to my jobs, shit hoa and asshole neighbors... Put on new pan gasket, new rear main neoprene seal, plugs/wires/cap/rotor, rebuilt carb and turbo... removed the canister, smog pump and corresponding valves but left the egr. And all that is just what this newbie did in the engine compartment(of course with great help and advice from the cats on this forum)...

She's running ok, I timed her to bout 4 degrees advanced and carb idle screws out about 1 turn... seems to idle the smoothest there. I've got all unused vacuum lines removed and/or plugged. The only thing I've left to plug is the tube coming from the cat. She's idling/running a tad rough so I think being a 70k motor that was maintained like hell by the previous owner has something to do with it. Not sure if any can tell how good/bad she is running by this video I recorded? The ticking sound is a combination of a slight exhaust leak and the smog pump which is not connected but driven by the belt still until I find an a/c alternator mount. Any feedback is much appreciated.

Started idling with about 40/50 oil psi, no terrible sounds, no missing or ticking from motor... So after idling her about 15-30 mins the rear main starts to drip pretty steadily and the oil psi drops to 20 psi. I continue timing her, checking for other leaks, listening with the stethoscope, adjusting idle screws... all seemed ok except for of course the little rough idle and oil leak. I had her running about an hour to an hour and a half, she developed a 6" oil puddle in that time. I guess I messed up the install with the rear main a little :/ I'm thinking I didn't apply the rtv correctly in those grooves, don't think I pierced it well enough to allow it to dry correctly? Could that be my problem? Although it did sit for a couple months before I ran it... Now to fix it are there any tips? Can I just remove the pan and rear main cap to fix the rtv I squirted in those rectangular chambers or do I have to buy another rear main seal and start over again? Also what is the best way of cleaning out the old rtv I put in? I've heard squirt the rtv in and pierce it several times with a wet toothpick, is that the best method? It's cold so I'll prob have to wait a month to dry the 2nd time around eh?

Thank you in advance and also thanks to everyone for the previous help and advice. If it wasn't for that I would not have even made it this far. Cheers!

2012-12-22_17-39-01_541.jpg
 
nothingman said:
Well folks finally after many months of working on and off thanks to my jobs, shit hoa and asshole neighbors... Put on new pan gasket, new rear main neoprene seal, plugs/wires/cap/rotor, rebuilt carb and turbo... removed the canister, smog pump and corresponding valves but left the egr. And all that is just what this newbie did in the engine compartment(of course with great help and advice from the cats on this forum)...

She's running ok, I timed her to bout 4 degrees advanced and carb idle screws out about 1 turn... seems to idle the smoothest there. I've got all unused vacuum lines removed and/or plugged. The only thing I've left to plug is the tube coming from the cat. She's idling/running a tad rough so I think being a 70k motor that was maintained like hell by the previous owner has something to do with it. Not sure if any can tell how good/bad she is running by this video I recorded? The ticking sound is a combination of a slight exhaust leak and the smog pump which is not connected but driven by the belt still until I find an a/c alternator mount. Any feedback is much appreciated.

Started idling with about 40/50 oil psi, no terrible sounds, no missing or ticking from motor... So after idling her about 15-30 mins the rear main starts to drip pretty steadily and the oil psi drops to 20 psi. I continue timing her, checking for other leaks, listening with the stethoscope, adjusting idle screws... all seemed ok except for of course the little rough idle and oil leak. I had her running about an hour to an hour and a half, she developed a 6" oil puddle in that time. I guess I messed up the install with the rear main a little :/ I'm thinking I didn't apply the rtv correctly in those grooves, don't think I pierced it well enough to allow it to dry correctly? Could that be my problem? Although it did sit for a couple months before I ran it... Now to fix it are there any tips? Can I just remove the pan and rear main cap to fix the rtv I squirted in those rectangular chambers or do I have to buy another rear main seal and start over again? Also what is the best way of cleaning out the old rtv I put in? I've heard squirt the rtv in and pierce it several times with a wet toothpick, is that the best method? It's cold so I'll prob have to wait a month to dry the 2nd time around eh?

Thank you in advance and also thanks to everyone for the previous help and advice. If it wasn't for that I would not have even made it this far. Cheers!

View attachment 178130
Click to expand...
Go to before black section people are not freindly to carb type turbos. Instead of replacing the seal again find the cause of the problem, like loose main bearings or leaky wrings
 
yeah i get that but i'm not asking questions about the turbo or carb, i do go to before black when asking about those things in paticular... i'm asking about the 3.8, which if i'm not mistaken is pretty much the same 3.8 used in the sfi cars. is it not? do they not use similar rear main neoprene seals and process of install? if i had loose main bearings wouldn't i be having much worse problems than a steady drip at the rear main? leaky piston rings?
 
Here is a link with good info for installing the rear main seal. When you put the rtv into the sides of the main cap make sure it squeezes out the cracks between the cap and the block. Also i use a wet pipe cleaner to pierce the rtv with,this seams to work better than a piece of wire or a tooth pick.
Is this the way you installed the new seal?
The split part of the lip on the new seal faces the front of the engine. The package should show the correct orientation of the seal lip.


http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/engine/rearmain.html
 
You can drop the pan and fix that problem, its a good thing you dont have something else that could be more major problem.
Good luck with the fix, keep us updated.
 
that is essentially how i installed the rear main the first time... only thing is when i pierced the rtv i don't think i did it just right, was kinda sloppy... maybe what i used was too thick and i didn't wet it either :( could what mike said be an issue, the loose main bearings and leaky rings? b4black also said it might be my valve cover gaskets... i'm going to investigate that issue as well. thanks for the help gents :)
 
Dem far loose bearing n leaky ol ringys'l getcha every time, even wit dem sfi mochineicles!!
Merry Christmas and best of luck
 
haha thanks, i thought his suggestion sounded a little odd. btw after rebuilding that quadrajunk electronic carb i wish i did have sfi! merry holidays man :)
 
I understood them real well and they are simple, just sayin I don't miss them much, especially since anything still running a carb probably at least has big vacuum leaks around the throttle shaft. ;-)
 
yea there are just too many variables for me to accidentally screw up with this terrible habit i have of over analyzing things haha
 
Take down the main cap for the bottom have of the neoprene seal. Clean off all the sealant you put on it and in it. Put sealant on all the mating surfaces except for inside the seal groove and the bearing part. take the tube with the tube attachment and squeeze inside the grooves. Fill to about half way inside, then stick those rubber square long seals into those grooves and then put those pins in and bang them in. Don't worry about the air bubbles because if you put that tube as far in as possible and squeezed half way full air shouldn't really have stayed in there all that much. When you put the rubber square seals in the sealant with seep out and then put the pins in and you are good to go. As a newb to rear main seals, I did a pretty dam good job for a first time and I'm not all that mechanically inclined.
 
I have used every method there is putting in rear main seals on Buicks, and the best way to seal up the grooves is to squirt " The Right Stuff " into dry, clean side grooves until it oozes out of the cap. Be sure the seal lip is installed tapered side to the rear of the engine, lip toward the front, and put a thin layer of sealer on the block face of the cap. I read it on this forum, and it works.
 
thanks for all the advice gents!

yeah it was dripping, i'm probably going to replace the filter housing on the carb since i have an extra...

shoot, there are a lot of ways to do this rear main haha. i guess since i didn't have much luck with just the rtv i'll have to try one of the other methods... now to figure out which one?? haha. i've never used "the right stuff" what is the benefit of that sealant over rtv, does it cure faster? hopefully this new year will bring me some luck and i'll actually get this old girl on the road ;)
 
" The Right Stuff" comes in an aerosol can. It comes out as what looks like liquid rubber. Most auto parts stores have it. I used it on the rear main by putting the nozzle in the grooves and injecting it until it ran out all sides of the cap. I wiped off the excess. I alway use liquid teflon pipe thread sealer between the cap and block faces, but a thin layer of this stuff will also work. Leave out the rubber strips and pins. I used it between my block and girdle and there are no leaks there, or at the rear main, and my forged stroker crank does not have any knurls to help keep oil away from the seal. This is the first time I have had a Buick V6 with no oil leaks.
 
We can do that here in S. Fl, plenty of Santeros around. If it starts to leak, it will just mean that things are normal. Small oil leaks have never bothered me. Nothingman's leak would not be acceptable, though. It was pouring out. Hope he gets it under control.
 
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