After five years, my 9.2A is out of the water. Now what?

[kloudie1]

Bugbitten Looking at the back of the engine, it looks like some oil may have been leaking from under the carrier bolt at the three o'clock position in the picture? That seal and bearing carrier has an o-ring seal that may be leaking. The leak-looking stain goes down from the carrier bolt at 3 O'clock to the housing attach bolt at 5 O'clock..?? I agree, seals on transmission and rear crank look to not be leaking.. If you decide to pull the carrier to replace the o-ring, do go on and replace the crank seal.. If it was not leaking enough oil to make a tablespoonful puddle in the bilge after a day or so, I would be tempted to not mess with it at all.

 

[sailnewbie]

Front trans seal leaking?

 

[bugbitten]

I don't think it's the transmission seal. I'll upload the picture again of the front of transmission. The lack of oil around the seal was what lead me to think the rear main seal was the culprit. The oil was collected at the bottom of the transmission's bell housing; it is also off to the side a bit in the picture because I leaned it over when I first pulled it out.

 

[kloudie1]

Pretty sure, like you said, that it is not the trans seal.. that oil looks to be all engine oil and I don't see any evidence of weeping in the transmission.. I do see some evidence of weeping from that rear bearing and seal carrier casting.. I see red RTV sealant all around the carrier except between the bolts at 3 and 5 o'clock positions.. and that looks to be where the weeping is.

 

[sailnewbie]

Again I'm not familiar with this set up, however some motors(international) has a seal between bell housing and motor and could leak that way thru bolt holes but it doesn't look like that or even any open bell housing hole could draw in oil as motor spins

 

[sailnewbie]

Is that starter housing at 6:00

 

[sailnewbie]

What our we looking at, trans, motor or what, I see a bell housing with a input shaft but I can see thru gaps and holes and see nothing behind it

 

[bugbitten]

The picture above is of the forward end of the transmission. The bulge at 6 o'clock, I believe, is for the output shaft. We think that's engine oil accumulated in the bottom of the bell housing, but aren't sure where it originated. There's a picture of the mating end of the engine at the bottom of the previous page. I'll go get some more pics tomorrow of the engine, around the main bearing seal. There's some thought that there may be a bit of seepage around one of the bolts for the bearing carrier, but it doesn't look like enough to me. I'm replacing the transmission, so if it's the source of the leak, there's no problem (other than I'd like to know so I could pass the info to whoever buys the old transmission from me, should that happen).

John

 

[bugbitten]

Back to the boat this morning. I massaged the packing nut on the rudder stock's seal with a 24" pipe wrench and finally broke that free. The boat was closed up due to rain and pretty muggy, so I didn't stay long enough to pull the packing.

Took more pictures of the back of the engine. There is no oil on the lip just below the bearing retainer, which is where I would think it would accumulate first, if one of the bearing retainer bolts was the culprit for the leak. Unlike the transmission, there seemed to be no real pooling of oil, nor was any of residue you see fresh. What oil there is seems to have largely originated around the starter, for what that's worth. The flywheel and damper were oil free, so I'm tempted to put it back together - with the new transmission and damper - and not worry about it. Actually, I think I have a new starter in the bowels of the parts pyramid. Maybe I'll slap that on.

I need to remember to put fluid in the new transmission as it was shipped dry.

Looks like the new transmission is about 1/4" shorter than the old one, in overall length, so I'll add that to the new prop shaft calculation.

Did I mention I nearly dropped the flywheel into the bilge when I pulled it yesterday? I was not expecting it to be that heavy!

Here's today's shot of the back of the engine. I know everyone's been eagerly awaiting it.

Incidentally, the old damper's springs, though not broken, rattle around quite a bit. Looks like it was good to have ordered a new one of those, too.

John

 

[sailnewbie]

No way I wouldn't change that seal right now, if it was me and my luck it would pour out oil once everything was back together. Your to far into to not go all the way, change it, change it, change it, little chant if that helps

 

[sailnewbie]

Oh and put a tag on the key to check fluids so you don't forget the oil, lol

 

[bugbitten]

I do have the new seal on hand. Goofy to let it sit and slowly dry out, instead of replacing it, I guess.

 

[kloudie1]

Couple of observations, Bug.. Note that the engine is tipped down in the mounted position.. I would not expect oil to accumulate on the lower lip where the carrier is.. it would run off .. Look at the lip carefully and you can see that the bottommost lip is cleaner than the right side (in the picture) higher lip, and note the housing right below the lower carrier lip; it is cleaner than the rest of the housing.. detergent oil will clean stuff it is weeping over. It does look suspiciously like oil might be coming in the starter opening also.. could it be coming in from a drool/weep/leak in that oil line and/or banjo connection on the back of the cylinder head? (couldn't see it well enough in first picture)

 

[bugbitten]

I'll try removing the starter tomorrow and will look over that area for possible leaks.
John

 

[sailnewbie]

Once seal is out feel crank shaft for a groove where the seal rides, they can and will cut a groove in the crank, sounds impossible but it happens, if it does have a groove it's fixable with a speedy sleeve we call it anyways. You can buy from Napa or else where and comes with a driver and all, pretty cheap! It's like sliding a beer can over the crank and works great, you'll just have to micrometer the size of crank and buy the right size and knock on straight

 

[bugbitten]

Here's a bit of an update.
I got the new main seal installed on the engine and bolted on the new transmission. It looks very pretty. The new shaft and coupler arrived, and my mech is starting to install that. I'm still sanding the topsides, eventually wet sanding with 320 before compounding and polishing. I'll a attach a snap of a small area near the bow that has been compounded, but not polished. Looks pretty good! Haven't gotten back to touching up the gel coat, but should do that next week.

We found considerable rot around the port stay's chainplate, so my brother, who is more of a woodworker, has been tackling that. It's about ready for the replacement piece. The starboard one has a bit of rot, too, but far less. Two more to inspect, once those two are done.

Still have to sand and paint the bottom and install the new speed log. Then she'll be about ready to get back in the water. Once there, there's still the mast and rigging to attend to, but I'll try to get in a couple of sails before addressing those.

Ever the dreamer!

John

 

[sailnewbie]

That is one pretty piece of power you got, get-er done....fire that beast up

 

[ronald reed]

Does that have the 273 in it? That engine was the basis for the venerable and much storied 340. Not many ppl know the hipo version not well known is the fact it had 1 hp per ci. 273 ci = 273 hp. My buddy had a valient with 273 factory 4 spd that easily outran his cousins 383 road runner. I love those old dual use cars, some had 4 doors and slant sixes little old ladies drove and their healthy brothers, well if your a gearhead you know...

 

[ronald reed]

if trans fluid is the color of used motor oil something is seriously wrong with it. Take trans off the leak list unless of course you use motor oil in trans.

 

[BobM]

Does that have the 273 in it? That engine was the basis for the venerable and much storied 340. Not many ppl know the hipo version not well known is the fact it had 1 hp per ci. 273 ci = 273 hp. My buddy had a valient with 273 factory 4 spd that easily outran his cousins 383 road runner. I love those old dual use cars, some had 4 doors and slant sixes little old ladies drove and their healthy brothers, well if your a gearhead you know...

Where did this come from? I have a 64 Dart GT convertible which has a new for 64 273 in it. I plan to have it rebuilt to hi po specs at some point. I found a one year only factory 4 barrel manifold for it. The 64 and 65 273's have a different head angle and bolt size. I have a 71 340 in my 73 Charger, which was one of the last years for high compression. Neither holds a candle to my 2015 Challenger SRT's 485 hp 392 though!