Elliot9

Approx. 15-25 miles south of you. Just across the Benicia Bridge.

whalebird

Elliot. You're doing the right thing. Stay after it. If you're aiming at a career in auto repair, you are going to run into these situations and you wont have a choice to sell a customers car. I've been a Porsche/Benz tech for decades; you will have to be deliberate and thorough. Take this as an opportunity to dig in and get results.

Voith

I didn't want to say that. All I was saying is, that your mechanic skills have some extra knowledge space.

If you are repairing seal of any kind, the most important thing to check is sealing points, as these, if not in proper contact, are leaking points.

I can understand that you missed it on first try, but not checking it in 5 tries is quite stubborn.

Elliot9

UPDATE:

I spent 4 hours, going very slowly and carefully like everyone has told me to, tearing down everything. The oil leak is definately coming from where the lower balance shaft front housing meets the block and it appears there was a little bit of oil that came through the front red-ish seal but nothing close to the amount coming from the back of the housing. I pulled off both housings just because and both of the large black o-rings looks just the way they went in. I discovered where those onion skin seals are located and pull those out and threw them away, they were very nasty. I pulled the housings apart and took pictures and I think I may have discovered part of the problem: the floating race that the red seal goes over might have been pushed back too far causing it not to seal properly in the front. I think I might have slid it backwards on accident when trying to re-install the keyways on the balance shafts. The other issue I noticed was that the block to housing mating surfaces were very dirty, so I plan to scrape them off with a plastic scraper and actually apply a very very very thin layer of RTV being careful to avoid any rotating assemblies (my teacher said this wouldn't cause any issues and I trust him on that). I did take a fair amount of pictures but I have some eBay stuff I really have to attend to right now (I'm running a little late on shipping things to people, still within my handling time window but obviously the sooner I ship the better) but give me maybe 2 hours and I'll upload the pictures. Nothing seemed to be excessively worn or damaged so I think by cleaning the mating surfaces and getting ALL the seals installed 100% correctly this time with the new races I should be in good shape.

The oil filter housing with the pressure sending unit did seem to be leaking slightly but it wasn't anything abnormal, I guess I might replace it while I'm in there but then again I might not just because I don't want to open yet another can of worms. I took pictures of that as well so maybe someone would be able to tell if it's a simple pressure sending unit swap or if I need to remove the whole housing from the block.

I worked really hard at staying calm and at a solid steady pace today and I didn't get quite so frusterated. I'm trying to take the approach of "either I fix it or it blows up, which gives me an excuse to make custom engine mounts and put in my 13BTT I have sitting in the garage".

PerceptionProblem

I've been thinking about that swap as well. . . would take alot of fabrication.

Charlie

Please show pictures of the spacer (floating race) pushed back so that it would not seal. From memory I did not think it would go back far enough where it would not seal (with the key and sprocket in place). I could be wrong but would like to see a picture with the sprcket removed.

Elliot9

Pictures...Hope these help, I'm no pro photographer and I was trying to take care not to get my mom's brand new camera covered in crap.

Before major disassembly. Images of rear of lower balance shaft housing, oil sending unit under filter, and lower balance shaft front seal:








Everything related to the upper balance shaft front housing:






Everything related to the lower balance shaft front housing:

Elliot9

Anyone notice anything in the pictures I didn't catch that could be causing a problem?

Elliot9

Got everything cleaned, etc. started putting it back together today. The brand new lower balance shaft metal journal thingy on the front doesn't want to go on, my teacher said it's an interference fit so that's ok. Other than it requiring effort to get that part on it went smoothly. Hopefully the leaks are fixed, I'm going to run it without timing covers and accessory belts to see what's going on before I do a full reassembly.

On a side note, would anyone be interested in trading a 1983 944 for my 85 944? I want to be able to go to the track but I don't want power steering (yes I know I could swap my car over to non power steering and I might if no one wants to trade). I'm only looking to do a trade for an original CA car so I can pass smog with it.

thirdgenbird

my race wouldnt fit either. there was a very slight lip on it that i had to take off with some emery cloth (no oil leaks)

i wouldnt trade cars. keep the one you poured work into and swap racks. after what you jsut did it will be VERY easy. it also seems like most of the manual racks for sale are on the west coast anyway. if i recall, a member found mine at a pick and pull in CA.

MichaelK

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...61029_0_0_3492

Autozone has rebuilt manual racks for $400 (less if you have a core). You also get 15% back in GC's and free shipping. Can't beat that deal. Apparently you can make it work but a manual intermediate shaft would make it easier.

Elliot9

I just called my school and got a quote for a manual rack through my 40% discount hook-up. A full manual steering conversion would cost me less than $375 and it would all be brand new parts. So I guess I'll just keep my car. If the oil doesn't start leaking yet again....

Elliot9

Yeah I thought about doing that, but then we had a better idea! We got a torch and heated up the race and stuck it on there haha. Much more fun that way.

951Saga

Hopefully you didn’t melt the onion seal with the hot race.

Elliot9

Nope, we checked that. Basically we used the heat just to get it past the front of the shaft, it actaully still slides around like normal just the very end of the balance shaft was causing issues.