Oil ALL over the garage floor from my 47

I filled my newly rebuilt 47 engine with oil today. No oil leaks from just filling the car. It wasn't till I put a drill on the oil pump that I discovered that:

1. My new oil pump works

2. Something somwhere leaks...

Oil was running out from the hole in the flywheel cover. I never got any oil pressure reading at the guage, even though I had it hooked up.

I saw no oil from anywhere up top and it wasn't till I saw the spreading pool of oil that I started to look underneath.

Any ideas on what I may have screwed up ? Are there plugs on the back of the engine anywhere the may be missing ?

This only showed up with the oil system is pressureized. As soon as I get this load of oil absorbed and cleaned up, I will reload the engine with oil and have someone else spin it up and see what I see from underneath.

Thanks all

Here are the potential places for oil leaks from the clutch housing. First, there is a soft plug at the end of the rear cam bearing bore that has to be installed. There is also a pipe plug that screws into the end of the oil gallery fed by the oil pump. Finally, your rear main could be leaking. As I recall, neither the soft plug or pipe plug is accessable with the clutch housing installed. I would pull the sheet metal clutch housing cover and look to see if you can tell where the oil is coming from; you may be able to see whether the rear main seal is the culprit. If not, you will probably have to at least remove the clutch housing which means at a minimum that the transmission and clutch have to come off. Bummer!!

Bill

I can't see how the rear main seal could leak that bad even if no seal were present...and you would still have oil pressure. (I will keep defending that seal since I helped install it)

Another possibility is the oil pressure relief valve may not be relieving pressure and one of the installed oil gallery plugs was blown out...look for the loose plug when you take of the lower cover. This happened to a friend, except the plug was in front of the engine under the timing cover and it too had no oil pressure, but no leaks (not discovered until the engine was disassembled).

Did you ever have any resistance on the drill when turning the oil pump?...you should definatly feel some when the oil pump starts pumping oil.

Keep in touch

Willie

I've thought a bit more about your problem and I'm pretty sure that the pipe plug for the end of the oil galley is missing. That would account for the lack of oil pressure. If the cam bore plug was missing or if the main seal was leaking, you would have oil pressure with the leak.

The plugs on both ends of the galley (as well as those on the side) should have been removed when the block was hot-tanked and it could have been easy to overlook them on assembling the motor. I know I remove them so I can run a 20ga shotgun brush through the galley for cleaning.

The oil galley is on the same side of the block as the cam (or distributor) and has five plugs along the side of the block as well as one on either end. The oil pressure gage is connected to a fitting in the galley as is the oil filter if you have one.

If you remove the rear-most plug on the side of the block you may be able to probe the rear end-plug hole with a wire and see whether it is there. Or, if you remove the starter, you can feel the end of the plug with your finger; it has a square hole in the end.

I don't see that your leak could be caused by any problem with the oil pump; a faulty pump would have all of its problems contained in the crankcase. But, with the galley end-plug missing, there is a half-inch hole in the end of the block feeding directly into the flywheel housing. The plug hole opens directly into the flywheel housing; it is not covered by the flywheel housing. So, it would leak like crazy and prevent you from building up any oil pressure. I also suspect that if the rear end plug is missing, so is the front plug. The front plug hole would drain into the timing chain cover so would not show. I suspect that when you were spinning the oil pump, there was no resistance and that the oil was going no further than the two ends of the oil galley.

At the very least, you will have to get the flywheel out of the way for access to the rear plug. With the starter out, you can get your finger on the plug but, I don't think you can get tools on it. And, given the possibility of a missing front plug as well, you should at least remove the timing chain cover and check. Good luck!

Charles,

That sure gives me a place to look when I get the old oil cleaned up and I am done being po'd at myself for missing this.

I will let you know what I find, until then its

1. remove engine,

2. fix and

3. replace AGAIN.

I should be getting good at these 3 steps by now.

Well,

It was missing both the plugs. No wonder I had no pressure.

Good things about this is that I learned how to pull the trans out whileleaving the engine in. I also figured out how to get the flywheel off without pulling the pan and rear main cap. But it is much easier if you do pull them.

Car started today, found a leaky water pump. Always something....

Bill,

Good to hear that the fix was so "easy" (especially for all of us readers...). Was just thinking of you yesterday and almost sent an e-mail asking for an update. Enjoy the '47 when you get it back on the track!