I am looking at a 6.9 NA engine for my van and the seller is telling me that it will need a camshaft seal. I've search summit, O'Reillys and Napaonline with no such product listed. What am I missing here?

 

Beats me, id be for asking the guy. There is no seal on a cam. You sure he didnt say / mean crankshaft seal by chance?

 

I just left a message to get clarification.


If the rear seal needs to be replaced is that a sign of more problems? The engine was rebuilt 30,000 miles ago and then pulled for an engine swap and has been sitting in the shop for 2 years. The engine swap into his Bronco never happened.

 

Honestly, if the engine's been rebuilt(and turns over nicely), you're probably fine. There's only a couple of shaft seals on this engine -- rear main, front main -- and they're both easy to replace with the engine out -- It's literally just a matter of taking the seal-plate off with a 7/16" socket, knocking the old seal out with a hammer, and putting the new seal in with a block to keep it straight and an arbor press, bench vice or other way of putting force on it.
Cleaning the old RTV off the rest of the plate is the hardest part of the whole operation.

One thing to note, however, is the seal must go in the right way or it will leak constantly. These seals are setup(I believe) such that crankcase pressure will help push the seal closed, especially at high RPM when the crankcase pressure increases slightly. If you have it in backwards, your engine will drip oil constantly at any speed above idle(I know this personally <_<)


Honestly, I'd see if you couldn't get the thing running on an engine stand first. It's a lot better to find any issues /before/ you put it in your truck then after. All you need to do is get fuel to your injection pump and jump the FSS solenoid, then just a whisp of ether because it'll be cold.

Also, considering the front/rear seals can easily last a few hundred K miles, if it's leaking it's either because it was installed improperly, the old seal re-used(and they stretched/nicked it putting the engine back together) or something like that.