gchristofi

Is it possible to change the front crankshaft seal without splitting the engine case? My car is having top end rebuild and just wondering if this seal should be changed.

(just in case I'm talking about the incorrect seal, I mean the one that seals the pulley end of the crank and the engine case.)

demonfish

sure is, i've just done mine.

while there do the intermediate shaft seal also...

viperbob

The front seal, yes (and if the shop is REALLY good they will do it in the car and save you BIG $$$). If it is the front crank bearing that is at issue, they you will need to split the case... There is an o-ring on the outside of the bearing that can cause problems leading to front oil leakage.

ThomasC2

I did it a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to remove the big A/C bracket. I saw there was a small leak so I replaced it, and also the intermediate shaft o-ring. It was easy to do with the engine still in the car. Just support the engine and remove the primary silcencer/cup pipe and the heat pipe. Then you can remove the engine carrier and your there. The only "problem" is that the bolt for the pulley is tourqed to 235 Nm. I managed to borrow the correct Porsche tools for this job from a garage.

You need:
tool 9290 "holding wrench"
tool 9285/1 "extracting bolt"

Don't use a regular pulley tool because it's easy to damage it because it's very soft and REALLY expensive.

You can probably do it with other tools but I felt these two really made the job easy and safe.

Getting the seals in and out was easy.

There are some pics and good info if you have access to the workshop manuals.

gchristofi

Thanks for all the answers guys.... I can see how the intermediate seal can be changed but still not sure on the steps to change the front crank seal...

The engine is out of the car and the pulley is removed leaving a brass coloured wheel. Is this brass coloured wheel part of the crankshaft or can it be removed to help seal replacement? Does it require special tools?

ThomasC2

?? When the whole pulley is of you should see the seal. The pulley is bolted to the crank with the big bolt I mentioned above.

gchristofi

Hi Thomas, yes, apologies I was having a brain freeze! I re-read your post above and I see once the bolt is removed the whole pulley can be pulled away from the crankshaft at which point the front crank seal should be easy access.

Thanks

ThomasC2

cool! :-)