Hi George and Chris,
Yes we have discussed this front rope seal quite a bit. Coventry Auto Components supplies a retrofit seal that Dave C covered in his thread in an answer to your question above. That seal requires some grinding away of the front cover in situ and he showed excellent pictures of that process and described its installation in detail in the thread he highlighted above. I am happy to hear Dave’s efforts worked out well.
The other option is to remove the sump and timing cover and install a retrofit lip seal as described in detail in the below link, including a nice video by Nick Saltarelli. The string is long but I think worth wading through since many good questions are asked and answered. Or skip to post number 96 to get right to the seal discussion.
Regarding the rope seal versus the modern lip seal, the rope seal may work for a while but will eventually leak oil all over the front of your engine and make a mess. The modern lip seal will eliminate that leak path completely. The amount of leakage is dependent upon how much you drive your car, since the leak only occurs when the crankshaft is rotating. The same goes for the rear scroll crankshaft seal that you have. An upgrade is also available for that leak path and eliminates it. That requires a major effort, engine, transmission, and crankshaft removal and machining away of the scroll. Realistically that would be done during a complete engine rebuild, but I highly recommend it.
I have been lucky this winter, being located in New England near Boston, MA. We have had an exceptionally warm winter with virtually no snow and very little ice, resulting in clean roads devoid of sand and salt. I have been driving my 52 120 FHC quite often, approaching 2800 miles this season, since April of last year. The engine now has 6000 miles on it and remains clean. In the 2800 miles so far this season there is no measurable oil consumption. This is because it has modern three piece oil control rings on the Mahle pistons, front and rear crankshaft lip seals, and valve stem seals. I also paid close attention to sealing all of the threaded leak paths on the front timing cover and the head.
Best regards,
Tom Brady