40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

The oil pan on my 40 is dripping pretty bad on the bottom of oil pan at that split key.What is the purpose of this key?Is there anything that can be done on the outside to slow leak?

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

Did u just do an oil change? Sounds like u have too much oil

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

The key is there to keep the drain hole open. The oil will be coming from a leak at the rear seal. Will need to pull the pan to fix.

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

I had the same problem ,oil leaking from the hole under the flywheel .The oil pan has two sections one is under the motor part and holds the oil ,the other is under the fly wheel and is dry .Mine had and quite possible your might have a small rust hole between the two which lets the oil out into the flywheel section. With mine it seemed to be worse when the motor was hot. I dropped the pan welded up the small hole and no more leaks John.

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

The 40 Ford 221 engine does not have a rear seal, it has a slinger made on the crank that is supposed to sling the oil back into the pan. There is a cork gasket that seals the back of the pan, it may not on right. if you over fill the oil pan it will leak. Walt

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

I was referring to the cork as a seal. Also I use a dab of silicone at the corners of the gasket and where it meets the cork.

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

It will also leak if the rear main bearing has too much wear or clearence.

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

>>>The oil pan on my 40 is dripping pretty bad >>>

Define pretty bad.

Jack E/NJ

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

25 drops in 1 minute while sitting at idle!

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

That's "pretty bad". It sounds like some good advice in this post already. Have you pulled the pan?

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

No.Car has been sitting for about 20 years.I was hoping things would get better since it is running again?

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

When my '36 221 Babbit-bearing motor started leaking like that, it turned out the cork gasket mentioned previously, between the two sections of the oil pan, had just disintegrated. No choice but to pull the pan, had the added benefit of clearing a good amount of sludge out of the pan which I didn't really know was there.

Adam

Re: 40 Oil Pan Leak:
 

Isn't most of our Fords self oiling, ha ha