In the quest to build a leak-free engine, I purchased one of the
uprated (XJ6-S3 style) front seal kits. In searching the archives I
did not find the following issue addressed.
Right now I have the engine on a stand so I have the luxury of of
being able to carefully examine everything as I install it.
It tooks a bit of jiggling and tapping to get the timing cover
mounted with the seal in place. To get the timing cover on the
dowels, it was necessary to put considerably pressure on the outide
of the seal to compress the (slightly squishy) rubber that
surrounds the seal. Once installed with the seal firmly seated in
the timing cover, I noticed that the seal was pressed firmly
against the distance piece and I could see light between the seal
and the distance piece on the side toward the sump. Once I
installed the sump, the pressure on the opposite side of the seal
seemed to close up the gap. Nevertheless, with the sump installed,
the white ring just inside the metal core of the seal did not
appear to be perfectly concentric to the seal track. So this
concerns me.
It appears that the outside diameter of the seal is a few
thousandths’ too large to fit neatly in the tracks of timing cover
and sump, moreso on the timing cover side than on the sump side.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible that the seal is
defective (i.e. slighly larger than it should be). Any rumors of
defective seals that I may have missed?
Thanks,
Glen–
Glen - 69 OTS. Restoration documented at www.myjagsite.com
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Hi Glen,
If the seal is visibly off center on the crank I’d be concerned. I
had one of these seals, genuine Jaguar, that literally started to
fall apart after about 15 years and maybe 25,000 miles. It was
perfect up to this point and when I replaced it with another Teflon,
can’t recall where it came from, this one showed signs of “distress”
after several years and I’m now wondering if the 2nd one could have
been slightly oversize and not centered on the crank. A search of the
Jag Lovers members photos, front crank seal, will show the first
seal. At the time I posted the pictures there was no feedback what so
ever from anyone.
Bob
889076
Plymouth, Mi.On Nov 20, 2007, at 8:32 PM, Glen Jarboe wrote:
In the quest to build a leak-free engine, I purchased one of the
uprated (XJ6-S3 style) front seal kits. In searching the archives I
did not find the following issue addressed.
Right now I have the engine on a stand so I have the luxury of of
being able to carefully examine everything as I install it.
It tooks a bit of jiggling and tapping to get the timing cover
mounted with the seal in place. To get the timing cover on the
dowels, it was necessary to put considerably pressure on the outide
of the seal to compress the (slightly squishy) rubber that
surrounds the seal. Once installed with the seal firmly seated in
the timing cover, I noticed that the seal was pressed firmly
against the distance piece and I could see light between the seal
and the distance piece on the side toward the sump. Once I
installed the sump, the pressure on the opposite side of the seal
seemed to close up the gap. Nevertheless, with the sump installed,
the white ring just inside the metal core of the seal did not
appear to be perfectly concentric to the seal track. So this
concerns me.
It appears that the outside diameter of the seal is a few
thousandths’ too large to fit neatly in the tracks of timing cover
and sump, moreso on the timing cover side than on the sump side.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible that the seal is
defective (i.e. slighly larger than it should be). Any rumors of
defective seals that I may have missed?
Thanks,
Glen
–
Glen - 69 OTS. Restoration documented at www.myjagsite.com
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
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Hi Glen,
I had a similar experience, except when the pan was bolted up I had gaps a 9
and 3 o’clock. I took it off and ground of some of the outside rubber to
make it fit concentric, haven’t had a leak for several thousand miles.
Bob Rankin 65 OTS______________________________________________________
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In reply to a message from Glen Jarboe sent Wed 21 Nov 2007:
Hello Glen,
Good catch, some people don’t find this problem until the spot
appears under the car. I’ve seen this problem several times,
usually on early 3.8 engines where the recess in the timing cover
and sump are too small for the later seal. If you see light around
the seal, no mircles will occur to heal it, and the engine will
leak oil. On early engines, I recommend going back to the original
$2 seal, they can work fine if they are installed correctly and the
spacer is perfect. If you are working on an S3 engine, I would try
trimming the outside edges of the seal and rechecking the fit.
Paul–
The original message included these comments:
It appears that the outside diameter of the seal is a few
thousandths’ too large to fit neatly in the tracks of timing cover
and sump, moreso on the timing cover side than on the sump side.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible that the seal is
defective (i.e. slighly larger than it should be). Any rumors of
defective seals that I may have missed?
Thanks,
Glen
–
PS
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In reply to a message from Robert M. Rankin sent Wed 21 Nov 2007:
Thanks to all for your responses. I am inclined to do exactly as
Bob suggests, remove some material from the seal to get it to fit
nicely in the sump and cover tracks. Given that the outside of the
seal may not end up perfectly round I will probably use a
good ‘‘gasket maker’’ type of non-hardening sealer to ensure that the
seal beds nicely into the seal tracks.
Although the gap was reduced when I mounted the sump, I could see
that the clamping pressure tended to squeeze some of the rubber
into the space between the sump and the timing cover (the space
that would normally hold the sump gasket).
I will try to post some pics so that others can see the problem we
are discussing.–
Glen - 69 OTS. Restoration documented at www.myjagsite.com
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
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