My 2056 D-jet roared to life today for the first time. It started right up & sounded great. About 10 minutes into the 20 minute cam break in, I noticed a steady drip of engine oil from the bell housing. We completed the cam break-in and pushed the car back in the garage.

New rear main seal installed (driven in until it stopped, which left it flush with the case), lubricated with a touch of grease on the lip where it meets the flywheel. New flywheel o-ring installed as well.

Crankshaft journals polished by machine shop.

End play spot on at .004"

Anyone else experience something like this? Do new rear main seals fail? Could anything be causing the leak that doesn't involve removing the transmission?

What brand rear main seal?

Victor Reinz orange.

Damn...

Did you put the o-ring on the flywheel?

I won't use those anymore. I (and the late capn) use sabo black rear seals.

Yes, new o-ring on the flywheel.

Did you install it with a hammer?

There is a spring inside the seal that can be dislodged on occasion. And then the seal's not a seal anymore.

I went through 3 rear main seals before I finally go one to seal well. Keep at it (of course this was easier with the engine on a stand). I also used the Sabo seal for success.

Have you verified that it is the seal leaking?

If not it could be a galley plug about to pop.

same issue with VR seals on 911's changed mine to Sabo ,lots of bad press on the VR RMS seals on Pelican,wasn't going there and didn't need the hassle.
Pays to check the running surface on the flywheel also.

Yes. Used a soft face hammer and a wooden dowel.

I had to step away from the project & have not verified yet. But the galley plugs were drilled, tapped & replaced with steel plugs & pipe sealant.

Had the same problem a few years back. I'm not sure if I used a Sabo for replacement. I remember ordering it from some VW Bus outfit which was recommended at that time. Did the trick.

I get mine from Bughaus a mile down the road on rt 66.

That's it!

Thank you for all the feedback. Frustration kept me from working on the car over the weekend, but I've got a plan.

I picked up some fluorescent dye that I'm going to put in the crankcase. I'll run the engine before pulling the tranny so I can be sure exactly where it is leaking from. All signs point to rear main seal, but I need to verify its not coming from anywhere else.

New Sabo rear main, flywheel seal, flywheel lock plate are ordered.

8 days later, she fired up again - no leaks this time. It started snowing as I was setting the timing...but I couldn't resist taking her out for a 20 mile test drive. Everything seems to be in order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m6raOCZXQ0...eature=youtu.be

I wanted to follow up on this thread to show my findings and possibly save someone some grief down the road.

I'm not sure if the rear main failed on startup or if the flywheel itself was bad...or some combination of the two.

Ran the car for 20 minutes with after adding fluorescent dye to the crankcase...this is how much oil I lost:

Click to view attachment

Pulled the transmission out. Didn't need the fluorescent dye to see where it was leaking from, but it did look cool under the UV light.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Inspected the flywheel sealing surface. There was some pitting where the rear main seal rides all the way around:

Click to view attachment

Took it back to the machine shop and they swapped it out with another one. I went around the sealing edge of the flywheel with some fine scotch brite until it looked like this:

Click to view attachment

Reset end-play. This task was a lot easier with the engine on a stand:

Click to view attachment

Installed a new SABO rear main seal with a little oil on the sealing edge. Fired it up and kept my fingers crossed. No leaks!

I'm not convinced the rear main was the problem in this case. But I'll be using SABO rear mains on future rebuilds to avoid any potential headaches. Additionally, I'll be sure to carefully inspect the flywheel sealing surface.

Thanks to 914world for the education on the rear main seals...much appreciated!

Nice job, Bob. I hope the 2056 is pulling strong and we get to see it at Hershey

Engine sounds great, glad to see your back on the road....