I have had this car for a good number of years. It got a full motor swap just before I received it, and had a new clutch put in at the same time. That was around 120k miles. They did the works, Crane cam, gold roller rockers, better clutch. I wish I knew exactly the specs of the clutch, but alas, don't yet.
I've driven it to 211k miles now, and it's just as strong as it's ever been. I have started to develop a shudder from time to time when accelerating. It usually seems to be in 4th gear, but I've also experienced it in 2nd.
I thought perhaps the clutch was in need of replacement, so decided to look into it. There has always been a bit of an oil leak, but it's not been something my father-in-law (the mechanic with the shop) really wanted to tear into. He said to just make sure it never got low and we'd be good to go. I removed the starter, opened the inspection cover, which was quite covered in sludge. Inside and outside. And it seems the inside of the bell housing has a greasy/oily/grungy coating around the inside perimeter. The flywheel (what I can see) seems to be very clean/dry. Where the flywheel attaches to the motor, I don't see anything leaking from that particular spot.
I'm trying to determine if I have a rear main seal leak. Will I not get any oil from that connection between flywheel/motor? Does the oil leak deeper inside the other side of the flywheel? If I reach my fingers way back behind the assembly, I get black/oily residue. What surprised me, is that the face of the flywheel close to the motor was dry/clean.
I checked the backside of the motor and on top of the bell housing. I don't seem to have oil coming from the valve covers back there. Nothing between the heads and block back there. I can feel a good bead around the backside of the intake manifold where it seals to the block, and I don't have much from there, other than normal engine dirty detritus from wiping back there. It does have a breather on the passenger front part of the valve cover, so I chalk some of that up to having a breather element.
I gave everything a good wipe down/clean, re-attached the starter (left the inspection cover off) and started it up and let it get fully up to temp. After shutting down, I did a full reach around on the top back of the block/heads/intake with paper towel to see if I could find any oil. Nothing up top it seems. I went underneath. I could see a small stream of oil coming down the face of the bell housing on the driver's side -- dripping down the surface that would mate up with the inspection cover. It almost looked like it was coming from between the orange-painted block and where the bell housing met it. Yet my reach-around on the top netted me nothing. Is there something else that could let go back there that I'm not able to reach?
Is this oil coming from inside the bell housing from the rear main seal, being flung around and dripping down the bell housing face?
I did also discover my weep hole in the front is weeping. So I'll be needing to take care of that as well (water pump). Does that also mean I should probably do another Optispark as well while I'm there? *sigh*
This really has been a fantastic car. It has been beefed up quite a bit from stock -- makes passing someone easy at any point. Always get 26-28 mpg as well -- it's my daily driver/commuter. I drive about 50 miles a day, and have done that for probably 7 or 8 years now. Before I really tear into things, I wanted to ask the pros here about what they thought.
I have had good success with the forum here. I did a pellet/security bypass a couple years ago when that part went bad. Made my own little plug-in resistor 'dongle' following instructions gleaned from experience of others here.
I've driven it to 211k miles now, and it's just as strong as it's ever been. I have started to develop a shudder from time to time when accelerating. It usually seems to be in 4th gear, but I've also experienced it in 2nd.
I thought perhaps the clutch was in need of replacement, so decided to look into it. There has always been a bit of an oil leak, but it's not been something my father-in-law (the mechanic with the shop) really wanted to tear into. He said to just make sure it never got low and we'd be good to go. I removed the starter, opened the inspection cover, which was quite covered in sludge. Inside and outside. And it seems the inside of the bell housing has a greasy/oily/grungy coating around the inside perimeter. The flywheel (what I can see) seems to be very clean/dry. Where the flywheel attaches to the motor, I don't see anything leaking from that particular spot.
I'm trying to determine if I have a rear main seal leak. Will I not get any oil from that connection between flywheel/motor? Does the oil leak deeper inside the other side of the flywheel? If I reach my fingers way back behind the assembly, I get black/oily residue. What surprised me, is that the face of the flywheel close to the motor was dry/clean.
I checked the backside of the motor and on top of the bell housing. I don't seem to have oil coming from the valve covers back there. Nothing between the heads and block back there. I can feel a good bead around the backside of the intake manifold where it seals to the block, and I don't have much from there, other than normal engine dirty detritus from wiping back there. It does have a breather on the passenger front part of the valve cover, so I chalk some of that up to having a breather element.
I gave everything a good wipe down/clean, re-attached the starter (left the inspection cover off) and started it up and let it get fully up to temp. After shutting down, I did a full reach around on the top back of the block/heads/intake with paper towel to see if I could find any oil. Nothing up top it seems. I went underneath. I could see a small stream of oil coming down the face of the bell housing on the driver's side -- dripping down the surface that would mate up with the inspection cover. It almost looked like it was coming from between the orange-painted block and where the bell housing met it. Yet my reach-around on the top netted me nothing. Is there something else that could let go back there that I'm not able to reach?
Is this oil coming from inside the bell housing from the rear main seal, being flung around and dripping down the bell housing face?
I did also discover my weep hole in the front is weeping. So I'll be needing to take care of that as well (water pump). Does that also mean I should probably do another Optispark as well while I'm there? *sigh*
This really has been a fantastic car. It has been beefed up quite a bit from stock -- makes passing someone easy at any point. Always get 26-28 mpg as well -- it's my daily driver/commuter. I drive about 50 miles a day, and have done that for probably 7 or 8 years now. Before I really tear into things, I wanted to ask the pros here about what they thought.
I have had good success with the forum here. I did a pellet/security bypass a couple years ago when that part went bad. Made my own little plug-in resistor 'dongle' following instructions gleaned from experience of others here.
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