front oil seal leaking {crank seal? cam seal}

[dynabill]

Dynabill,

I have a bit of oil coming out of the front somewhere on my engine. I think new seals are in my future. How many hours did it take you to replace the seals? Did you use any special tools? How tough was that crank nut?

thanks,
John

Hi cosmic, I think if you had everything you needed when you went to do this job, you could prob have it done in eight hours or so. If you are stripping the engine that far down, you may as well replace the water pump, timing belt, idler and do both seals. buy an extra one in the event you screw one up (speaking from experience)They are usally the same seal, for crank and cam. as for special tools, I took a piece of pvc and ground it down on a belt sander to meet the radius I needed to drive the seal in. Its a pain in the ass, but can be done with some patience. It is hard to get a square hit on the pvc that far down in the motor cavity, even with the radiator removed.
As for the crank nut, I have tried kixfixs method of standing on the brake and have had little success. I use a method that I know kixfix will frown on. I use a chain wrench to hold the crank pulley, and then undo the bolt with a socket. Its usually a two person job. If there are any marks left from the chain wrench, I file and sand them, so there isn't any rough surfaces to shorten the life of the belts.
Oh and one other thing, make sure you use a gasket sealer on the water pump gasket, both sides, I failed to do this, and the water pump gasket leaked. so I had to tear it down again and ended up replacing the water pump again, as a safety measure. although I did that in under five hours. lol
best of luck Bill