1994 Ext-Cab, 3.0 V6, 5 Speed, 3.42 rear
Truck has 138,400 miles on it. I changed the oil last night, and this morning there was a puddle under the truck. First thoughts, *****, i didn't tighten the drain plug. Crawl under truck, still tight. Then I notice it is dripping from the front seal. Never noticed it before this. Park on concrete, so oil drippings would have showed up in driveway. Any idea what caused it? How long before the motor has to be torn apart?

 

Look closely at the front of the oil pan. The pan gasket probably blown out there. The early 3.0 engines were bad about doing that. I'd replace the gasket as soon as possible, you don't want to run it out of oil driving it that way.

 

I took his advice, and cleaned the oil off the front of the motor and pan, and ran it for a few minutes. When I shut it off, and crawled back under, there was a small stream running down from the crankshaft (where it connects to the fan clutch). I'm fairly sure it's higher than the oil pan gasket. How long will these seals hold before they go all the way down. I haven't been loosing much oil between changes (usually not even a quart over 3000-4000 miles). Would the colder weather here in TN make it leak worse than usual?

 

this seal should be pretty easy to do... im pretty sure u can do it in the truck. mabey just pull the harmonic balancer then pic up the engine enough to get the pan off a couple of inches

Matt

 

where in tennessee? if you don't want to do it yourself, i know of a great mechanic down there!

 

Umm, the crankshaft doesn't connect to the fan clutch. Are you sure that you don't have anti-freeze leaking from the water pump? Front seals will usually seep and leave enough oil to get a coating of dirt on the timing cover before they will leave drops on the driveway. In other words, there should be a coating of road dust that has been mixed with the seeping oil on the front cover. It is only after seeping for a long time that they will allow oil to drip down the front cover, leaving a trail.
If it wasn't doing this yesterday, so to speak, why would it start all of a sudden today? I'd check the puddle to make sure it is oil before touching the seal or pan gasket. I have a 3.0 (sable) with 225K miles on it. Even today it does not really have a coating of oil/dirt on it. You can still see the shiny rocker arm covers. They mostly don't leak, except at the pan, and there is a new(relatively) kit that is supposed to take care of that. Ford part 2U7Z-6710-AA, including gasket and new bolts. Felpro sells a pan gasket that includes (4?) plastic gasket holders that you screw into the block to hold the gasket in place while you push the pan up and secure it using other pan bolts. The main thing with the pan is to have the pan gasket surface and block gasket surface DRY so the rubber will not have any help in squishing out of place (no lube)
tom