oil leaks / James Bond -007 smoke screen

[1KWIKSIX]

Well, got home yesterday after my last drive of the season before putting car away in winter storeage.
Can smell burning oil and saw tons of grey smoke in my rearview mirror, however this was present only as I got into boost on the hiway and hi speeds.

Kinda reminded me of the old James Bond 007 movies where he deploys a smoke screen while peeling off in his Aston Martin. LOL

Noticed lots of oil on crossover pipe and transmission inspection cover & cross member, etc...all oil soaked etc....

Always had a bit of a weeping rear main seal.....and noticed this summer that the blue rubber fel pro oil pan gasket has seen better days.....was protruding in areas and cracked.
I'm pretty sure that this is where the oil is coming from....

Guess it's time to change the oil pan gasket, rear main seal and might as well do the front timimg cover seal at the same time?
I understand that the cork oil pan gasket is the way to go?  Any preferred brand (part #)? Same goes for the rear main seal?


Anyone tell me from their experience doing these repairs if they can be done with the engine still in the car?
Or, is it simply easier to pull the motor to do these.

May consider changing the timing chain & gears too while I'm at it.

I have a 10" PTC 2800 stall convertor that I was planning on installing.... .since I gotta pull the tranny to do this...maybe just as well pull the motor?

Would appreciated any helpful comments & guidance .

thanks,


dave

[Just a Six?]

If the car is off the road for the winter then I would just pull the motor & take my time with it. So much easier to do work on an engine stand.

[Steve Wood]

Yeah...then you can take some sanding rolls to the block and components and do some polishing up of all the casting marks and rough spots so it will look great when you paint it before reinstall.  Also you can clean it up under the hood and paint everything in the engine compartment.

Then you will be finished by spring and can post pictures to compare with David's pics!

[SuperSix]

They can be done in the car - MUCH easier with the engine out. However - once you take the time and effort pulling the motor, you will be inclined to replace a lot more parts than you intended initially. not a bad thing, but it can get expensive.

I don't know where to get the cork gaskets though...

[Just a Six?]

Yeah...then you can take some sanding rolls to the block and components and do some polishing up of all the casting marks and rough spots so it will look great when you paint it before reinstall.  Also you can clean it up under the hood and paint everything in the engine compartment.

Then you will be finished by spring and can post pictures to compare with David's pics!

I wondered how long until you would say that!

[Just a Six?]

RJC sells extra thick cork pan gaskets & I think now carry some valve cover gaskets.

[Charlief1]

You might want to check hiway stars as well for the gaskets. Glen seems to have parts no one else has and if he doesn't he usually tells you where to get them from.

[SuperSix]

He only has NOS GM rubber and FelPro rubber. At least on his site..

[Scoobum]

Yank the engine...only takes a few minutes. Well...at least for Dan and I.

[earlbrown]

The trick is to remove the pan, use a gasket maker called "the Right Stuff". Then reinstall the pan with no gasket. It's cheaper and works.

As far as the timing cover stuff, that's a completely different repair with no overlap. Removing the cover has a bunch of stuff that has to come off. The pan only needs the crossover pipe removed.


If the timing set if 20 years old or has 100,000 on it, it needs to replaced yesterday.