[T3] Oil cooler seals.

[William Jahn]

 I've seen oil drops for quite a while now. I thought it was the oil cooler
and I did feel something in that area is leaking a bit.  Fixed the oil
sump, no leak there. I drove today about 10 miles. Got home to see if the
sump plate was still dry, it was . While I watched for a minute or so I saw
two small drips dead center front of the engine where it meets the auto
trans diff bell housing.

Sounds like the rear main seal. I have to live with it. No way I can deal
with pulling the engine which if I did I would leave the trans/diff in
place. Plus as some know the flex plate has to come off and the issue is I
don't have a torque wrench capable of tightening that to the proper spec
and being a flex plate it's very difficult to secure the engine to do this.

Yet it being a 73 with all the FI wiring horror which earlier FI didn't
have everywhere. I'll live with it and keep an eye on it. I'd rather deal
with oil cooler seals.

 Wish there was something to pour in to seal it yet that's not a very good
idea and only a butcher would do this.

William

On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 7:24 AM Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:

> Sounds like you did a nice job. It's amazing how that thick plate gets
> deformed over time, even though no one ever overtightened those nuts, but
> most of them are at least slightly deformed by now, and, yes, the
> aftermarket
> replacements are all junk.
>
> I also like to take a tapered reamer to the holes in the strainer. Those
> get
> pounded inwards over time, making the strainer hard to remove. Taking a
> bit
> off with the reamer makes R/R of the strainer much easier.
>
> Jim
>
> On 27 Jun 2020 at 17:51, William Jahn wrote:
>
> > Jim :
> >  I changed the oil today, used Valvoline VR1 , had enough left for one
> oil
> > change.
> > What I never checked was the sump plate and I used the one off the 72
> which
> > has the drain plug. I needed it because the 73 plate was really butchered
> > and because I wanted to add a VDO temp sensor all I knew about were the
> > ones they offered for the sump.
> >
> >  I drove the car to get the oil really warmed up then it drained better
> and
> > while I cleaned the screen and plate I decided to check the plate for
> > flatness around the 6 holes. I always just cleaned it , never over
> > tightened the  cap nuts. I decided to check it and the 6 holes were
> dimpled
> > . I did the best I could with a ball peen hammer , plate on hardwood
> > striking the ball peen with another hammer. It was better yet still not
> > flat so I filed each hole flat and then polished the surface with wet
> /dry
> > 600 . I also discovered since I didn't want to ruin the sender I removed
> it
> > and it was too easy maybe 3 ft lbs. I had good copper drain crush washers
> > and replaced that. Today I put it all back together. This time I only
> used
> > a nut driver and 10 mm socket and did the same star pattern three times
> > with maybe 20 minutes between just to allow the gasket Felpro brand to
> > compress. I didn't file off much. Maybe .010" the plate is still plenty
> > thick. I had an old Empi chrome plate yet it was complete garbage,
> nothing
> > like the original and certainly not what I would consider flat.
> >
> >  I don't know why I never checked the plate around the holes, I just
> looked
> > at it, cleaned it and back on it went. I just assumed since I never over
> > tightened it it was fine.
> >
> >  I know there are other leaks yet the plate always seems to develop oil
> > drops on the 6 cap nuts. Maybe now this will slow things down. Nothing
> > looked like much gray sludge, just a bit of black bits that were not
> > magnetic, Turns out I had to tighten the two cap breather and I did this
> > after the last oil change and as you know to get at the nut you need to
> > remove the barrel and washer . I cleaned those yet some of that crud had
> to
> > drop down in the sump just pulling them out.
> >
> > William
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 9:57 AM Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:
> >
> > > On 20 Jun 2020 at 9:08, William Jahn wrote:
> > >
> > > > where I do see fresh oil is on the bottom tins and of course the
> floor,
> > > > especially if I have the engine running
> > >
> > > Once upon a time, I had a rather moderate leak on an engine that I had
> > > just
> > > rebuilt. Eventually I discovered that this was around the oil sump
> plate.
> > > When I had bolted the engine case halves together, I assumed they would
> > > line up perfectly on their own, but on that case, the 2 sides didn't
> quite
> > > match. There was a "step" at the case seam, about 1/2 mm high. The oil
> > > change gaskets couldn't quite seal that much of a mismatch. This step
> was
> > > easily felt when I ran a finger around that gasket surface, but I had
> not
> > > thought to do that as I assembled the engine.
> > >
> > > At the next oil change, I was able to loosen all the nuts along the
> bottom
> > > case seam and work the 2 sides back into alignment. It didn't take any
> > > real
> > > effort, so I don't know what I did wrong in the original assembly
> process,
> > > but
> > > this is something I always check now.
> > >
> > > Of course, I've also come across sumps where someone left half a gasket
> > > stuck to the case. That's also something a new gasket won't seal.
> > >
> > > --
> > > *******************************
> > > Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> > > Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> > > *******************************
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> --
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
> _______________________________________________
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> To unsubscribe or change subscription options, visit:
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