I'm replacing the oil pan gasket this weekend on my 292. It has always leaked at the back by the rear main seal retainer area, and I'm pretty sure it's not the rear main seal.

The sealing surface of the retainer looks flat and flush with the block rail, and the pan holes aren't badly dimpled.

I'm looking for some advice on gasket sealer use. What kind seems to work well and so forth. I have a Best Gasket composite gasket on hand. Any advice is welcome!

Steve

 

With oil pan gaskets at work I always use clear silicone not to just hold the oil pan gasket but to ensure a seal reguardless.


Now if this was my personal engine, I would probably use Ultra Black rtv as it is oil resistant and wont break down over time.

 

After I had rear seal and pan gaskets redone last year, i had seepage in that area too. for me it turned out that i was too dainty with the pan bolt torgque. pulled out the torque wrench and got everything to 15lbs and leaks stopped.

 

Thanks guys for the ideas.

I understand also that the 2 studs on the rear main seal retainer should have thread sealer where they thread into the retainer.

I don't know if mine are sealed or not. I guess they should just back out of there if I can get two nuts jammed on them. Then I can seal them.

This job has now expanded to replacing my gear type oil pump with the later gerotor style. I found one on Ebay. I've been considering this change over for quite a while since my gear pump is noisy as heck when cold.

 

If you are going to seal the threads on those bolts do not use silicone or rtv. Go to Summit or Jegs or anywhere that sells ARP products and buy a tube or two of ARP Thread Sealer. Its just like pipe dope but its ment for automotive application, it never hardens and it seals perfectly and the biggest plus is it does not cause false torque reading like RTV or silicone can as it starts to set up.

 

The pump I received from Ebay checked out with tolerances all at the upper limit. The main bore inside the pump and the inside of the cover plate look quite good with no scoring.

So I went ahead and bought the Melling K56 repair kit which comes with the inner and outer rotors, the pressure relief spring and the gaskets.
The photo shows the condition of the outer rotor right out of the box. Obvious wear marks as if it has been run plus some pretty bad dings.
I was hoping to get the truck back on the road this weekend, but now have to wait for another kit to see if it's any better that the first one!

 

About like the generator kit I got from Dennis, it came with an armature NOS in original sealed Ford box, but the brush contact at the rear of the armature had nicks and dings in it. Really upset me that I got a kit and got an armature that has gotten damaged due to age. But that is the nature of the beast when it comes with this hobby.

 

The outer rotor had evidently been run from its appearance. Maybe some unscrupulous person sneaked it into the box and returned it. The parts came in a Melling box that I sourced through Autozone.

The pump is back together now, and the pan has no leak at all. I used a Best gasket and a sealer called "Dirko" which I used on the rebuild of a VW motor I just finished. It's a very good product, and the tube even comes with a small plastic tool that fits on the end that allows one to roll the tube up very tightly from the end. I coated the bottom of the block, and the pan rail with a thin coat. I put thread sealer on the main retainer studs too.

The oil pressure with my old gear pump using 15w-40 Rotella was 70 psi cold and 60 psi hot at 3,000 rpm, and was a noisy 20-25 psi hot at 700 rpm. With 10w-40 Bradd Penn oil the rotor pump puts out 60 psi cold and 50 psi hot at 3,000 rpm and about 15-20 psi hot at 700 rpm. The pump is quiet.