Ahhh....less than 10 months and 2000 miles after putting my 350 in, its out of the car on the engine stand in my garage. Oil everywhere, front, back, left, right, you name a part of the engine, and oil is covering it. Valve covers are 100% leak free, I am 95% sure the front/rear main seals are good as well. The oil pan is beat....should never have been used in the first place. (read next paragraph for reason)

I really didn't assemble the engine myself the first time around. Someone offered to show me how to build a 350 and put it in my car. Now a year later I'm going to try and do it the RIGHT way the 2nd time around myself.

I've got a brand new oil pan with a matching fel pro 1 piece gasket, it looks solid. Should I RTV it? Any special plumbing sealants that people use that work for them?

The intake was leaking in the front, I haven't look over the engine throughly yet, but I'd be willing to bet the back of the intake was leaking as well.

 

With regard to the 1 pc gasket, I usually don't unless the pan has issues.

 

I've had the 1 piece gasket and with the dirctions that came with it ... it said DO NOT APPLY SEALANT they made it sound import that you dont...

 

My cats came with a note stating 'DO NOT REMOVE CATALYTIC CONVERTERS - ONLY CERTIFIED MECHANIC...' or some such, must have been important.

 

yes thats right they are good gaskets too however. read it very carfully. mine says do not add sealant to the gasket. but it does say to add it to the areas that go up into the front and rear of the engine. there are two little tabs on mine on both the front timing cover area and the rear area that needed silicone as per the directions. as for the intake front and rear i always just chucked the stupid cork gaskets and used black rtv. i have no leaks as of roughly 40k

 

My guess is that there wasnt enough sealant at both ends of the china walls on the manifold. Thats probably where a lot of the oil came from. Also, the manifold has to be tightened down in a certain sequence with proper torque so it will seat properly. You probably already knew that so its just an fyi.

 

do you have a functioning PCV system?

 

my guess is a bolts missing from the front of the engine and maybe a few other leaks, but if it's leaking as much as you say it'd take a hell of a bad gasket leak to getthat much oil.

 

Intake was bolted down in the correct sequence.

A smog pump bolt hole was mentioned to me, but I never saw anything of that nature.

I just don't understand how oil got all over the sides of the block considering my valve covers were not leaking. I wasn't aware oil could leak from a head gasket.

I'm going to snap some pictures later, then maybe someone can let me know where exactly it's all coming from.

 

The upper bolt hole for the smog pump goes RIGHT INTO THE CRANKCASE. In fact, if you have a mechanical fuel pump, you can just look into that hole, and see the fuel pump rod. Driving around with that bolt missing will spew oil like the Exxon Valdez, all over the right side of the motor.

Getting a motor to seal is mostly a matter of attention to detail; putting the front and rear main seals in correctly, making sure the tin is straight where it meets the castings (especially around the bolt holes), and CLEANLINESS. Keeping everything CLEAN during assembly has to be the #1 order of business. And of course, you can't leave out hardware that fills up holes between the crankcase and the outside world.

 

RB: Do you have a picture of this bolt hole? I have the AC/Alt/PS off so I have clear view now. I was never able to locate the smog pump bolt hole, nor was I able to track a leak from said hole.

 

No I don't have a pic. You really don't need one. Too simple.

Look at the front surface of the block, to the pass side of the timing cover. You'll see 2 bolt holes right below the freeze plug. It's the top one.

Trust me, it WILL leak severely if there's not a bolt there. Look in it, you'll see your fuel pump rod, or the passage for it, if it's not there; if your motor doesn't have a mechanical fuel pump, you might even be able to see the crank through that hole, I don't recall for sure.

 

rb when i said a bolt was missing why didn't anyone lsiten to me? i'm starting to feel like the red haired step child no one wants around

 

I'll check when I get home from work. I was looking at that freeze plug yesterday (the intake manifold was leaking oil in the front above it). I don't recall anything below it....I'll be sure to check though.

The engine didn't seems to have any major leaks, it just had drip leaks EVERYWHERE. No matter what I did, after a day of driving, the entire oil pan (sides and bottom), the entire block (sides and bottom), and everything else would be covered. I never understood how my starter was getting so much oil on it, because it would literally be dripping with oil....yet I could never find a substantional leak source as to how the starter was getting covered so much. My trans pan was getting saturated in oil as well....it was so far back as the driveshaft. So as I was driving...a considerable amount of oil was dripping and being flung back. If I just let the car idle the oil leak was just drips in 2-3 different places. Just seemed that there was alot more oil being lost then I could see when the engine was just idleing.

 

That's exactly what leaving that bolt out will do.

Oil will spew out of there at high RPMs, get picked up and turned into a mist by the balancer, and coat the whole right side of the motor, the starter, the inside of the exhaust, etc. etc. etc. It leaks only a very little, or not at all, when idling.

Probably 80% or more of all SBCs that have had the smog pump hacked off, have that problem. It's got to be the most common modded-motor mystery oil leak.

All blocks have the hole. In 1955 they didn't realize yet that it was for the smog pump, so they just used it for the motor mounts instead.

 

Hmmm....okay. Just wierd....I assumed if THAT much oil was coming out of 1 spot that I would see a distinctive oil trail.

 

I can't believe that part of the block is clean....thats why I never tracked it, because there was no trail by the bolt hole.



Heres a shot of a bad decision(wasn't me).....using a hammer to turn a passenger side dipstick pan into a driver side dipstick pan, nice leak there.