Blow by? Oil leak? Tranny leak?

[one.wicked.stang]

This started either after a Steeda UDP install or the day I took the car to the track. When I pulled it out of the garage I noticed the spot on the ground. Took a couple pics, see below.. Now since the car is an auto and I needed to keep the motor from turning what I did was remove a plastic housing between the oil pan and the tranny and put a pipe with a wrench in it to hold the motor from turning but finding an angle where the pipe would touch the ground and not allow the motor to turn. Cant see where something would get screwed up. Second, could it be from the track and that fact that my first run was nothing but spinning tires down the 1/8 doing about 45 mph but spinning high rpms? Trying to figure out if this is going to require going to the dealer or if its just blow by. There's a pic of the fluid I managed to get on a white piece of paper hard to tell if its oil or tranny fluid.

 

[blackgt09]

On the autos there is an over flute from the trans that bluewa up on the fire wall see if that leaked. If it is I only know of one company that makes a catch can/return system for it and that is jdm. Good luck.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

[555]

I put these on my car it is 5 speed but they said to put rtv on balancer before you install
did you do this?

 

[scramblr]

Is the front of your motor full of oil? Normally if there's a leak out the balancer it won't make it that far back, it will blow all over the front of the motor and the sides of the engine bay, but you never know.

 

[TexasBlownV8]

Yeah, try to see if the fluid is only coming from the bellhousing; look up/behind the engine, along the sides, etc, to see if it's coming from somewhere more up front.

As mentioned, since you went to the track, it could be auto trans fluid; it will vent and/or 'overflow' into the top of the bellhousing, so some could have blown out and run down. If it's reddish and not the same color or feel as your current engine oil, then it's most likely trans fluid.
But if it is oil, you have a leak somewhere and need to find it.

Identifying the type of fluid is crucial.

 

[one.wicked.stang]

absolutely no oil at front of motor so the keyway on the udps leaking is not the issue. I have inspected the top, top left, top right of the trans bellhousing where it contacts the motor, clean up there as well, I took some oil of the dipstick and put it next to that spot on the paper and it looks and smells the same, so at this point Im guessing oil, I didnt have time ti jack up the car and look/inspect where it is coming from underneath but Id bet money its somewhere near the are where I heald the motor from moving when doing the UDP install. I dont know if Ill get to it until next weekend because of work, Ill keep everyone informed of my findings.

 

[Bobby]

i bet rear main seal

 

[mydangstang]

i bet rear main seal

+1 on that

 

[TexasBlownV8]

Indeed. Sounds like rear seal.
Mine (rear seal) was leaking at one point, and there was no oil anywhere other than inside the bell housing. Had to pull the tranny, converter, etc. to get to it.
BTW if it IS leaking, you really want to use the Ford special tools to replace it and the oil slinger. I have the kit (you can borrow it), and it made a world of difference in removal and replacement.

But, the real seal shouldn't leak for no reason. Exactly what did you do when you put a wrench up in there to hold the engine in place? Is is possible that you pried against the rear seal plate or housing, between the flexplate and engine?

 

[one.wicked.stang]

Heres a good idea of what was done, found a pic on the web and using mspaint to illustrate. Wrench was on engine side of bolt, not trans side as shown.

 

[one.wicked.stang]

Indeed. Sounds like rear seal.
Mine (rear seal) was leaking at one point, and there was no oil anywhere other than inside the bell housing. Had to pull the tranny, converter, etc. to get to it.
BTW if it IS leaking, you really want to use the Ford special tools to replace it and the oil slinger. I have the kit (you can borrow it), and it made a world of difference in removal and replacement.

But, the real seal shouldn't leak for no reason. Exactly what did you do when you put a wrench up in there to hold the engine in place? Is is possible that you pried against the rear seal plate or housing, between the flexplate and engine?

Thanks for the offer on the tools, problem is I have no lift, dropping tranny in garage sounds no fun, Ive got no real "car friends" that can help with this, they'd be more nuisance then help. No way would I drop it this way. Ive had help from other forum members before though, pizza and beer is always on me !!

 

[TexasBlownV8]

Nice pic; i wouldn't think that would cause the seal to leak from doing that. Hm.

 

[dalemllns]

you sure you didnt accidently loosen the torq converter bolts...thats where you place you wrench according the illistration... may still be oil but if the converter is loose and jacking back and forth coul be the issue...just a thought...

 

[one.wicked.stang]

UPDATE

torque converter bolts are all tight, removed shield and verified, there is absolutely no oil flung around the engine side of the TC, looking up further as best I can I see no oil flung around the inner bell housing either. I took some more pics as seen, Ive since cleaned everything up and put the plate back on, I did notice this time around that the plate mounting holes are not perfectly round allowing for up down movement, when I put it back on I pushed it up as far as I could so it is flush with bottom of bell housing. Heres the pics:

 

[TexasBlownV8]

rear seal. When mine was leaning, it was like that...could not see any oil anywhere really; although it seemed to be more concentrated on the passenger side of the bellhousing up from behind the flexplate.

The slotted holes in the cover are normal.

 

[Vapour Trails]

Did you RTV the keyhole? Seems like a strange conidence that this happened right after a UDP install but isn't related.

 

[one.wicked.stang]

Did you RTV the keyhole? Seems like a strange conidence that this happened right after a UDP install but isn't related.

Wrong side of engine for leak, and yes.

 

[one.wicked.stang]

UPDATE!

%$#@ !!! Looks like it is definitely the rear seal. I cleaned up all the oil from previous pics and finally got a chance to actually drive the car about 100 miles. When I got home I looked underneath and its leaking from the same spot again. TexasBlownV8, your offer still stand on borrowing those tools? It sounds like its a good time to fix the leak and put in my PI TC at the same time..... Other than fixing the leak, what parts will I need and what should I be looking for??? Thanks guys....

 

[one.wicked.stang]

Are these the two parts I need???

Rear main seal, mustang - 4.6l sohc

Rear main seal retainer, mustang - 4.6l sohc

 

[TexasBlownV8]

Yup that's them.
You can borrow the tool set (pay deposit and shipping); I'll need to get it back from a local friend who's borrowing it for his build. IMO, you gotta have those tools to do the job right, and fast! Pulling out the old seal and slinger and putting in the new ones are completed very quickly.
I had to replace mine after my motor build/swap due to trying to put the seals in via other means, and they didnt go in quite properly, and within 100 miles, leaked. ugh. And yeah, upgrading tranny stuff at the same time makes sense.

PM me an we can work out the details.