how can i fix a front main seal without all the hassle?

 

All what hassle?

Take off the balancer, change the seal, put the balancer back on. Pretty straightforward really.

You will probably find a groove worn in the balancer, in which case, replacing the seal alone won't fix it. You could either get a new balancer, or use one of those repair sleeves on it, which works for a while, but will eventually wear through (100k miles or so) and have to be replaced. I hate short-interval maintenance items like that myself, but it's alot cheaper than the other way.

 

put some grease on the seal before you reinstall the dampner or you'll burn it up before oil has a chance to get to it.

 

no i mean the seal from the oil pan to timing cover

 

Well then, all the above, plus remove the timing cover, which will require removing the water pump, which will require moving some accessories out of the way. And once you're there, about $20 and 15 minutes more, and you can put a new timing chain in it, which would be a great idea. Still not much hassle.... it takes me about 3 hours from tow-in to drive-out to do a timing chain in a small block, not counting the parts run.

 

i just replaced the heads so i have new water pump gaskets timing gears and timing cover do i have to take the timing conver off to change the gaskets?