Thread: Oil leak
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Old 03-29-2021, 03:09 PM   #25
Bored&Stroked
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Central Ohio
Posts: 5,070
Default Re: Oil leak

Well, you've posted the source of your major amount of oil - the drilled oil galley plug. The gears get plenty of oil out of the front cam bearing as well as a 49-53 cam is drilled to provide pressurized oil to the front of the timing cover (the cam thrust surface). There is no need to add additional oil to flood the timing area. My guess is that you're getting way too much oil for the oil seal to handle.

Also, did you install the late 49-53 crank and timing gears? They push the cam thrust toward the front of the block - which keeps the distributor mesh and timing in the right place and also closes up the gap between the end of the cam snout and the timing cover. This reduces the amount of pressurized oil that can come out the front of a 49-53 cam. If you used the 39-48 gears (which thrust toward the block), then there is a gap at the front of the cam . . . another source of more oil that wants to run down and flood the front of the crankshaft (the seal area is right below it).

It is not really too big of a deal to pull the timing cover, turn the crank so the timing marks are aligned and pull the cam gear. Then you can replace the plug with a stock one. Make sure you use an original plug - as it is designed to limit the amount of oil that goes up to the oil-pressure relief plunger up above it.

Before you do this, I'd pickup a replacement timing gear bolt locking plate (cheap and widely available) - as I seem to manage to break off the ears about 1/2 the time I take them off. Make sure you don't break off any ears and let them fall down into the pan.
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