[xander18]

See subject. I chronicled my trouble with synthetic vs traditional oil in this thread. Long story short, I wouldn't recommend trying synthetic.

Now I'm getting ready to pull the GTV6 out after winter hibernation. I'm hoping that the seals reset, as they have been sometimes known to do, but I'm assuming I'll still have leaks. I figure I can do the cam seals with the engine in the car (have to do the timing belt anyway), how about the front main seal? Is the rear main seal too much to ask? Any other seals I should look at that are prone to leakage?

 

[RobNH]

Rear main requires you pull the motor out.... Don't know about the front...

 

[xander18]

This is a long shot but no chance of dropping the drive shaft and getting to it from underneath?

 

[Mark_toro]

The cam seals will be no big deal. Don't forget to replace the o-rings inthe cam pulleys too. There are three cam seals (same PN) two for the cams and one for the distributor / oil pump drive. Distributor drive can be a bit of a pain to get apart

Front main is possible, but removing the front pulley with the engine in the car could be a bear. Probaply do-able though.

The rear main will require you to pull the engine.

Other oil leak spots would be head gaskets or oil pan gaskets. And hydraulic tensioner if so equipped.

 

[Mark_toro]

You have to pull the flywheel to get at it. You have to pull the bell housing to get at the flywheel. No enough room to do that under the car.

 

[xander18]

Okay, well it was a nice thought. If I do everything else that leakage shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[Alfaguy35]

Rear Main Seal

I'm not sure about a V6 but I know you can pull a 4 cylinder bellhousing with the motor in the car.
First remove the drive shaft and the front guibo
remove the front bellhousing tin cover
through the drive shaft hole unbolt the flywheel and let it drop in the bellhousing
now unbolt the bellhousing and you should be able to drop the bellhousing with the flywheel inside, you may have to unbolt the front starter support so the starter can move forward so the bellhousing doesn't have to come as far back.

 

[Mark_toro]

Wes - that's an interresting path. If you can get to the bolts retaining the bell housing to the block and remove them w/o fouling the firewall, then I don't see why it wouldn't work that way on the V6 as well. You could always loosen the front engine mounts. lift the engine with a floor jack and slide it slightly forward w/o disconnecting a lot.

Torquing the flywheel back on may not be the easiest, but probably do-able.

If I didn't already have the engine out (doing a rear main too) I would at least investigate this path. Xander - maybe you want to be the guinea pig?

 

[xander18]

Alright Mark, if I do cam and front main seals and it's still leaking then I'm your man on that. I'm waiting for glennco to chime in, I feel like he would have tried something like this.

 

[zackspeed]

I've done the rear main seal with the engine still in the car on my 81 GTV6. Definitely doable, it took me all day though and I'm an experienced pro mechanic. I seem to recall the starter bolts were the most difficult part. And wrestling the flywheel housing out once loose was not as bad as I thought it would be. I don't remember having to loosen the motor mounts at all.

The cigarette seals are another matter though and as I recall they were still leaking afterwards

 

[radicalsquare]

My rear seal leaks; my mechanic, a former AR dealer mechanic, said the engine needs to be pulled.

 

[tomhenneka]

I recently replaced the rear main seal as part of my 86 GTV6 restoration project. All mechanical components aft of the engine bellhousing had been removed. I did not want to pull the engine at this time, as I wanted to reinstall the transaxle and rear suspension and brakes, and drive the car a bit before doing the front suspension and brakes. After doing that and driving some more, I would do the upper part of the engine (with the engine in the car).

The hard part is getting the bellhousing past the 3 long studs on the engine flywheel. The motor mounts have to be disconnected from the body and the front of the engine has to come up and almost 3 inches forward, and the rear of the engine has to hang down a couple of inches (I used a floor jack under the pan to accomplish this). To do this the steering rack has to be out. Since I had to replace one of the inner tie rods in the rack, this was OK with me. Since the right header has to come off to remove the starter, I took this opportunity to remove both headers, since I wanted to paint them.

By this point you have most of the work done to pull the engine. But you don't have to disconnect any of the cooling system, and you don't have to disconnect any of the engine wiring harness. Once the bellhousing is off, you have good access to the 8 flywheel mounting bolts.