I have an 89 xj with the 4.0 and its had this bad oil leak from the rear of the motor and i thought it was the rear main seal... so today i replaced it, took it for a ride around the block and when i got back it was still leaking.. the only thing i can think of is the oil pan gasket kit i got was missing the rear gasket so i just used silicone.. any other ideas?

 

Missing the rear gasket???


felpro one piece oil pan gasket. And you could have messed up your rear main seal putting it in.

Are you sure it was the rear main seal?

 

nop,no other ides,replace it,it needs to be there.

 

yeah.. the stupid gasket i got from carquest was like 5 peices....

 

I think that is your problem then. Get a one piece one from Autozone for like 30 bucks and be done with it.

 

I was very careful putting the seal back in, so i dont think i messed that up.. the leak looks like its coming from where the seal is though..

 

yeah.. i'll try replacing the seal with a 1 peice and hopefully that fixes the problem.. thanks..

 

Have you checked the back of the head on the top of the engine? See if you can tighten down your valve cover. If so, you may need to seal up your valve cover.

 

Are we talking about your RMS or your oil pan gasket now!

RMS is a two piece seal. Needs to be installed very delicately.

Oil pan gasket i have seen in many pieces, most common is a two piece and a 1 piece.

Use the one piece.

 

the oil pan gasket.. the one that i got had one long peice for the one side.. another peice for the front.. and two peices for the other side.. and i guess it was supposed to have one for the rear too but it was missing..

 

your rear main is inside the bearing housing,but I think you know that. The pan should have a rubber seal all the way around,the one piece is much better but a little more money.

 

Ok for sure then that is your problem

 

lets hope so.. its keeping me from taking it out for 2 months now.. thanks again.

 

The pan gasket is the issue but one mor thing I wanted to mention is,when you put the rear main seal in did you put silcone on the metal surfaces of the bearing housing?if you did it will cause another leak,it is ok to put a little on the rubber part of the seal but not the metal faces of the bearing housing,it can also cause bearing clearance to be more than it should.

 

Did you replace your rear main seal without pulling the crank out? Becaouse I tried that on my old 4.0L and I couldent slide the block side of it out with the carank still in place. Just wondering.