ZINGGG

Innovative... Nice work.

I picked up a tool just like this. For $15, it was welllll worth it. I had my oil change and adapter o rings done in 20 mins. Super convenient

http://www.ebay.com/itm/110958008484

mrobers

I used the same sort of L-shaped tool yesterday and changed my o-ring. Too bad there still is a leak and can't find where it comes from. Last week I changed my oil-pump and inspected the rear crankshaft seal; it seemed ok. Also used a new gasket for the oilpan and that seems dry. But still oildroplets near the convertercasing. Any options?

seven

HI Terry, I just bought two of them from our local dealer in Levittown Long Island, ny.. I buy them because you will eventually have to do them and they do not stock them usually a one day order, anyway For the two I paid $15.80, sounds high but a small price to pay to stop an oil leak,.. These are for the 97-2001 cherokee here is the part #`s mopar # 1-04720363 hope that helps, have a good one Bill or seven..

ZINGGG

You should have changed the rear main seal while you had the oil pan off. That may be your issue right there. But it can also leak from other places. Look higher first. Make sure your valve cover isn't leaking. Or your distributor or oil pressure sending unit

mrobers

Yeah, I can beat myself for that ...

I did see the back of the engine is very dirty so it could possibly be a leaking valvecover at the rear. I'm going to inspect that this evening!

ZINGGG

Good deal. Make sure you report back with what you find!

roccov12345

I'm sort of dealing with the same fiasco. Had an oil leak dripping down behind the oil pain. Passenger side of the engine was wet with oil so I automatically thought oil filter o-rings. Replaced those and still had the leak. Next was the rear main seal and oil pan gasket...replaced those, still have a leak. I now have tracked that down to a leak between the head and bottom end (headgasket). Also an FYI, it's easier to put the oil pan gasket on the bottom of the engine first before you put the pan up. It's real difficult to get the gasket aligned with the rear main cap. When I replaced my rear main seal, I made this mistake. Makes it look like the rear main is leaking again........

mrobers

Looks like I went the same route, except that as far as I can see, my valvecover seal is leaking at the back on the passenger side. It is difficult to see, but I'm going to replace the gasket first and see if it solves the leak and I don't hope it is the headgasket. Although I can't imagine this would cause an oil leak, is it?

I also looked down the oilfillercap and saw TUPY printed inbetween the rockers; does that mean that my '01 doesn't have the weaker 0331 heads?

roccov12345

If you have oil on top of the head, it's your valve cover. Easy replacement job.

I degreased my entire passenger side block and head, drove it for a few hundred miles and I can see oil seeping between the block and head. I think since the passenger side contains the pushrods/lifters, the gasket is thinner in those areas and more prone to leaking, especially if the engine has ever overheated. You'll know if it's the head gasket, basically everything below the head line will be wet with oil. Best bet is to change the valve cover (rubber) and degrease and clean the oil areas so you can better tell if that solves the issue. My head (97) is stamped 0630 on the driver's side, right above the exhaust manifold.

wrestler74354

just fixed this 2 weeks ago, thanks to all of the guys on here for running into problems so i knew what to look for! lol! I will say if i have to do this again i'm selling the f'n jeep.

ShowMe Cherokee

Replaced my o-rings today, only to discover that mine didn't even have the smaller 2 o-rings installed. No wonder the stupid thing leaked.

I had printed out one of the write-ups on how to do the replacement, only to discover that the adapter in the write-up was different than mine (my 98 had the newer version where the 2 smaller o-rings mount on the spindle, rather than the body of the adapter. Since there weren't any o-rings on mine to begin with, it took me a minute to figure things out.

Oh I did have to use a cheater to break the T60 loose. Whee.

Greg

Joe Green

Congrats on getting it done. Weird that the inner o-rings were missing.

black_771

Did this today on my 96. I used the L shaped star from O Reilly. Only $10 for the entire kit. I had a 12" pipe laying around so I used that as a cheater. Worked great and I guess I got lucky, I didn't have to use all that much effort. Got it all finished in about 20 minutes. No leak from the OFA, but I still have a leak somewhere.

Roler

Yes.

jpcallan

After 4 clean driveway years, the oil leak came back. Our driveway slopes sharply up hill, so oil tends to drip from the rear of the motor. It's fixed now and it was NOT oil filter adapter, round 2. I write this so the rest of you won't have to spend as much time as I did tracking down this new leak source. The culprit was the engine front timing cover. Three bolts at the top of the front cover at about 11 o'clock, 1 and 2 o'clock had loosened.

From underneath, the leak looked just like our classic oil filter adapter o-ring leak. Oil appeared to be dripping from the bell housing. Oil had blown back all over the transmission pan and transfer case.

The 1996 Jeep GC Ltd 4.0 Six was going to the dealer for another reason, so I asked them to locate the leak source. $55 later (on top of other charges), they came back with the valve cover as the leak source. I was let's say "suspicious" of this claim, as I had looked at the valve cover already as a leak source and only found a little fan-blown oil near the back of the valve cover. That weekend I re-torqued all the valve cover stud nuts, them washed the engine compartment with engine cleaner at a nearby do-it-yourself car wash. A week later and a 1/4 quart lower on the dip stick, oil was all over the lower engine again. The driver side of the engine was especially wet and there was some throw-off on the side of the battery and frame rails on line with the crank pulley/harmonic balancer. The top of the flange at the bottom of the block where the oil pan fastens was really nasty with wet oil along the driver's side.

Okay, by my best interpretation of the trail signs, the oil was coming out of the front crankshaft seal. I bought a Felpro crankshaft seal and timing cover gasket kit (P/N TCS45117) and an oil pan gasket kit (P/N OS34308R) and a valve cover gasket (just to cover all bases) at NAPA. I'm an obsessive/compulsive about buying cool tools, so I had an OTC harmonic balancer puller kit from an earlier repair on my 1994 Chrysler LHS. Once the front power steering bracket and balancer/pulley came off, the front of the motor was foul with a thick oil/dirt muck and wet with oil. There is a conspicuous lip on the front of the oil pan gasket just under the crank - it was full of wet oil and muck. The inside of the balancer/pulley was packed with the oil muck.

I dug out much of the muck out with wooden tongue depressors, then repeated flushing with CRC Brakleen spray solvent and scrubs with an old tooth brush until the engine front and the balancer/pulley were all clean. The cover is a die casting with lots of grooves and channels that retain filth. The area on the balancer/pulley where the crankshaft seal rides showed very little sign of wear. I pulled the old crankshaft seal, cleaned the mounting hole and cemented in a new one with the Miller 6739 Seal Installer. While I was doing this, I noticed oil starting to seep out from the top of the engine's just cleaned front cover. I thought I'd give the front cover bolts the same re-torque job I gave the valve cover. Starting at the 12 o'clock position, the bolts at 1 and 2 o'clock were very loose. Continuing clockwise around the bolt pattern, the remainder of the bolts were tight and close to correct torque until the last one at 11 o'clock - also loose. I unscrewed the three loose bolts and oil dripped out of all three bolt holes. I cleaned these bolt holes with Q-tips, then flushed them with Brakleen spray, cleaned the bolts likewise and reinstalled with Loctite 243 blue. After torqueing, more oil squeezed out along the cover seal line and was cleaned away.

I lubed the seal-riding area of the harmonic balancer/pulley with assembly lube, and with the Mrs. helping (it's her car), silicone sealed the stub of the crank shaft into the harmonic balancer/pulley. Remaining assembly was uneventful; the new pan gasket, front cover gasket and valve cover gasket were not installed.

We took the Jeep again to the do-it-yourself car wash to thoroughly clean the engine compartment and undercarriage with engine cleaner. We took our ramps to get the front end way up in the air and easily get way under to clean the frame rails, transmission and transfer case. With over a month since the service of the front crank seal and the front cover re-torque, the engine compartment is oil free and the time has come to break out the Castrol Concrete Cleaner and deal with the ugly oil stains.

Lessons learned:

1) The Jeep dealership doesn't try all that hard to locate leaks.

2) Parking on a steep driveway makes it just that much more difficult to pinpoint leaks.

3) The front crank seal was probably just fine. The oil leaked out under the loose timing cover bolts, ran down the front of the block, guided by the lip of the oil pan gasket, into the harmonic balancer/pulley and along the flange at the bottom of the block back to the bell housing.