Re: Engine Oil Leak


[Follow Ups] [Post Followup] [Dodge Power Wagon Forum]


Posted by D Sherman [72.47.153.24] on Friday, May 11, 2012 at 21:10:53 :

In Reply to: Engine Oil Leak posted by gmharris [71.105.186.43] on Friday, May 11, 2012 at 20:46:54 :

It's a big gap. I'm not sure what the advantage would be to trying to fill it with nothing but RTV, unless you didn't want to buy a pan gasket kit. The little rubber bits that go into the corners of the cork seem like a patch, and it's certainly good to add some RTV just to be sure, unless you know you'll need to take the pan off frequently.

The cork pieces are supposed to be compressed quite a bit end-wise. I'm thinking 1/2" or so. I wonder if whoever put yours together didn't realize that, and cut them off short so they'd "fit better". It would be a tempting thing for an inexperienced mechanic to do. Then, without the end-wise compression, heat and aging could shrink the cork, pull it, and either open up the end gap or stretch it apart in the middle, depending on where it was stuck.

I tend to think the original system was an adequate design, just like the original brakes are adequate, if properly maintained. The problem is we look at a 50 year old vehicle, see designs that seem primitive today (fragments of tree bark to hold the oil in?) and assume that we can improve on it. Maybe we can't. Also, if the original anything wore, rusted out, or dried out from 50 years of hard use and neglect, does that really mean we need to redesign it so our replacement will work for another 20 years of occasional fun trips and regular maintenance?



Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:
Subject:
Message:
Optional Link
URL:
Title:
Optional Image Link
URL:


This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com