so as anyone with an eighties ranger or bronco2 know the 2.9 v6 leaks oil through the rear main and valve covers. has anyone come up with a new type of gasket to solve this problem or are there any solutions anyone has come up with on their own to fix this?

 

I've seen write-ups on this and they said thr usa version of this engine had crap head design for the valve cover gaskets and if overheated will crack easily.There are aftermarket heads that fix both these problems.

 

Most front and/or main seals will leak on an engine at some point. Weather due to age or miles the seals either wear out or shrink and then leak.
My mothers 3.0L 1995 Taurus started to leak a bit after 12-13 years and I sold it with less then 50K miles on the engine. My Contour with 107K miles leaks from the front main seal. i could change the seal but until it gets worse I will just check the oil level and park the car on the street.

The valve covers on the 2.9L are not easy to change but can be done in a day or less. I had one in a 89 Ranger. The head cracking only happened on engines that were abused, overheated, etc. Mine saw 170K before it was sold out of the family and no gaskets or seals were ever replaced. Only the trans due to opperator error. Not mine, but my nephews.

 

I have a '78 Bronco 2 and was just told I might need to replace the rear main seal......drop or two so not too awful bad......

 

How hard is it to replace the rear main seal?

 

Replacing the rear main seal will require dropping the transmission. If you have 4wd, obviously the transfer case has to come off as well. And the easiest part of the drive to remove, the drive shaft, has to come off as well.

Removing the old seal will destroy it. You need to be careful not to damage the crankshaft surface that the lip of the seal rests against. There are pry tools made for this purpose.

The last step is to carefully install the seal so you don't damage it. There are tools made for this, which are expensive, and you only use once. You can modify PVC plumbing parts to work as a press plate, and get bolts that fit into the end of the crank shaft to slowly, evenly, apply pressure on it to push the seal into place.

In my case, I replaced a seal that I thought was leaking, but that turned out to be the oil pan gasket. Replacing that will require dropping the front axle if you have one, and maybe lifting the engine to get access. I documented my whole ordeal when I did this on my Aerostar:

https://goo.gl/photos/oUeQfbKaw9ntrg986

The other thing to note about replacing the oil pan gasket is that the torque spec for the oil pan bolts is only 7 lbs-ft, or 84 in-lbs. Much more than that and you distort the gasket, causing it to leak. But that may not be enough torque to prevent the bolts from shaking loose due to the vibrator modes of the engine, so a thread locker compound is highly recommended.