Oil Leak, Main Seal?

Okay my 1988 MJ has always leaked a little oil from the rear main seal, a couple days ago it started leaking like crazy! I went in and replaced the main seal today. Fired the truck up and it is still leaking a lot, the oil comes down between the engine and tranny. I'm pretty sure I did everything right, so I'm wondering if there is something else that could cause an oil leak in that area, or did I screw something up? Also should the I be able to see some defect in the old seal? because it actually looked pretty intact. I've already checked the valve cover and that is not the culprit either. Any help would be greatly apprecieated.

sounds like still the rear main - Try again. Is the flange of the rear main facing foward? did you use any RTV on the rear main bearing cap? did you replace the oil pan gasket?

sounds like still the rear main - Try again. Is the flange of the rear main facing foward? did you use any RTV on the rear main bearing cap? did you replace the oil pan gasket?

wishbone said:

sounds like still the rear main - Try again. Is the flange of the rear main facing foward? did you use any RTV on the rear main bearing cap? did you replace the oil pan gasket?

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also torque down(not too tight) the valve cover. the rear of the valve cover could be leaking.

is there a cap at the back of the cam on that motor. think that is more of a HD Truck aplication but just thought I would throw it out there. If there is it could look like a freeze plug of a bolted on cap. if not, unless something is cracked or the cam is worn at the seal (not likely) there has to be something wrong at the seal.

also did you give it enough time and brake clean to get all the accumulated stuff out of there before you condemn the new seal.

I'm pretty sure the flange was facing the right way, and I did use RTV, gave it a few hours to cure, I did replace the oil pan gasket. I'm going to take it apart again this week when I have some time, just not sure what to look, but hopefully I'll know when I see it. Thanks for the help guys, I'll let you know how it goes.

Give the back of the block a feel for oil. You might be chasing a leaky valve cover or oil filter adapter.

Double check the rear of the valve cover. I have seen too many rear main leaks that turned out to be the valve cover. It runs down and looks just like a rear main.