Rear crank oil seal?

[gareth h]

Guys I have an oil leak which appears to be from between the engine and bell housing, I’m assuming the rear crankshaft seal at the moment, I found this in an old post on Blatchat:

“In the environment of the engine running under vacuum the crank seal can be sucked in its opposite direction to normal operation and hence you can loose the seal integerity . You can just about see the seal by removing the starter motor . It would be worth trying to run it for a blat with the cam cover at atmopheric and see if that makes any difference . The crank seal giving up under vacuum is a common race series problem “

My car (K series) is running a vent from the dry sump oil tank but the cam cover is unvented, what are the pros / cons of venting the cam cover to see whether it resolves the leak?

Thanks
Gareth

[SimonRogers]

I used to run the K vented with a little foam air filter.

I would imagine John V has the same. Ask him for a picture. All the big K's I am aware of used to run like this or a variation there of.

[F355GTS]

Gareth, I once had an oil leak from the bell housing area, it turned out to be a loose nose on the gearbox

[IBDAET]

Seal works loose, or pops out. Stick it in with RTV and put 3 M3 screws through it.

[anotherjohnv]

I can send pics of mine if you want Gareth, but I'm afraid Arnie's most probably correct, the seal hasn't been screwed in and is leaking, exactly this has happened to mine when I had the clutch done once . the mechanic replaced the seal while the engine was out .. he didn't screw the new one down and it leaked .. engine out again!

[gareth h]

Thanks guys, it seems to have stopped over the last couple of days (perhaps it has fixed itself!!)
Will give it some attention if it gets any worse.

[F355GTS]

gareth h said:

Thanks guys, it seems to have stopped over the last couple of days (perhaps it has fixed itself!!)
Will give it some attention if it gets any worse.

or the gearbox has run out of oil

[IBDAET]

Mine is vented from the conning tower to the cam cover and from the cam cover to a Mocal catch tank. It still blew the rear seal out. it is a 1900cc though, which are alegedly a bit more prone.