Main Oil Seal

[ONeill]

OK so as some of you know I'm replacing the engine in my WRX.

My Question relates to the Main Oil Seal. while I'm do in the cam belt, water pump and rocker cover seals I have this "Main Oil Seal" but the maintenance manual I have does not have details for how or where to place said seal. So where does it go (point out on pic below) and how do I get it there?

[WRXONP]

you need to take the cranks cam belt pulley off the crank to see it

[Guest]

main oil seal, or front main seal, it seals the front of the crank shaft that drives the crank timing sprocket and crank drive belt pully. you have to remove both to get to it

[ONeill]

Mutters something about stupid damn twitpic.com image linking not working properly

[ONeill]

 wireless said:

main oil seal, or front main seal, it seals the front of the crank shaft that drives the crank timing sprocket and crank drive belt pully. you have to remove both to get to it

SO I have to take the little spikey thingee in the middle off then?

[Guest]

yes, that is the timing sprocket that drives the timing belt, once you remove that, you will see the seal around the crank shaft, just be careful removing it try not to scratch the surface it sits in

[WRXONP]

 WRXONP said:

you need to take the cranks cam belt pulley off the crank to see it

[ONeill]

 WRXONP']

[quote name='WRXONP said:

you need to take the cranks cam belt pulley off the crank to see it

/quote]

would that be the big round thingee i already took off??? :P

what are the steps are there any other things i have to undo or jam to get the sprocket off?

[WRXONP]

refering to your pic. the harmonic ballencer is removed (main crank drive pulley),, covers are off and so is cam belt.. now on the crank is the toothed pulley to drive the cam belt.. remove that from the crank and the seal is behind there.. you will see oil if its leaking

[ONeill]

Thanks.

doing this kind of work is harder without Hopai around to "supervise" (Supervise = ask his dad what to do)

[Guest]

the timing sprocket or cam sprocket if you like, can be a bitch to get off. some of them have threaded holes in them you can screw some bolts into, with that you can get something like a bearing puller on them to pull off the sprocket. in most cases the bearing puller wont fit behind the sprocket but if it does you're in luck and should be easy.

[WRXONP]

yeah...crc can loosen her up

[WRXONP]

is your seal leaking? not a good thing as the belts dont like oil on them

[Guest]

crc if you're lucky, not every car is a walk in the park, definitely worth trying first though

[rex-leggy]

replace the rear main while you have the engine out to its behind the flywheel.

be careful you dont push the new seals back to far or it will piss more oil out then ever before.

[Stoffa]

and the little oring behind the oil pump if your doing it properly, if you do that remove the screws on the back of the oil pump and rethreadlock them back in, they can work loose amd cause your front main seal to leak from the oil pump being pushed away from the block......if your doing it properly that is

[ONeill]

If it's not leaking is there a necessity to replace the seals? or am I going to be safe for the next 50,000ks.

from the looks of the cambelt that came off it the engine has done less than 20,000 since it was last done.

[rex-leggy]

if your unsure how old they are replace them even the belt ect . saves you having to get in there again.

plus over time the seals can get hard and brittle.

[Stoffa]

I did 300,000kms on my hiace before the crank seal started leaking, you'll probably get away with it, but how pissed off would you be if it started leaking in 2 months time? Do it once do it right, and always use genuine seals

[Guest]

 Stoffa said:

Do it once do it right, and always use genuine seals

best advice