Renix oil leaks

Finally gonna take care of last of my oil leaks. Already did valve cover and oil filter. Now its time for oil pan, rear main, timing cover. Any thing i should be checking or doing thats not mentioned in ghe service manual?

o rings on the oil filter adapter

and clean the CCV system.

Fel Pro sells a combination gasket set for about $25-30 that gives you ALL the lower end gaskets and seals - oil pan, RMS, front cover, front crank seal, oil filter o-rings, distributor gasket, and water pump gasket.

Check the timing chain for slack when the cover is off and replace it.

What are those long blue things in the package? Are those dowels for installing the oil pan? Where did you get them?

Make sure you have a couple of rolls of shop towels and many cans of carb or brake cleaner to clean up all the mess you're going to have. One or two straps to hold the tranny cooler lines out of the way of the oil pan if its an auto.

Make sure you have the right tool to R/R the harmonic balancer. Brass punches help remove the upper part of the RMS without damaging the crank. I used a cut up piece of straw to use as s shoe horn to slide the upper part of the RMS in.

Removing and installing the oil pan is the hardest part. The FSM says to lift the engine from the crank pulley. I supported the Jeep from the frame and let the axle drop. Had to loose up the lower shock bolts to get a little more droop. I have a small lift so it helps. Some people need to take steering dampeners and other parts off to get the pan low enough.

Yes those blue dowel things help hold the pan on and align it. They are so nice. Different sizes for different holes

Yep. Take care of all the CCV lines. You can get the woke thing from Napa.

Also - search for the valve cover breather tube mod. It's pretty straight forward and supposedly reduce blow back.

there's no reason to modify any of the stock crankcase vent stuff as long as it's working properly.
If it's not working properly the orifice is probably plugged, or the metering bit is missing.

while you're at it, order the two halves of the vacuum system.

trust me. It's like $30 from rockauto and money well spent.

Not the oil filter adapter seals?




I'd be looking up ABOVE first, and VERIFYING the source of the oil leak YOURSELF.

Everybody, who doesn't own or have to pay for or perform your vehicle repairs, loves to poke their noggin UNDER the Jeep and come out bearing the false bad news that your RMS is leaking.

Many mechanics, friends, people on Jeep forums who can’t see your Jeep from where they’re at, and good old Uncle Bob seem to enjoy telling you it’s the rear main seal. Has a catastrophic ring to it, doesn’t it?

A simple leak at the back of the valve cover or other source could produce the same symptoms. You don’t need to be a mechanic to figure this out. If you have good eyesight and a dim flashlight, you’re good to go on your own. Don't jump on the RMS/oil pan gasket bandwagon right off the bat.

Almost any oil leak on your 4.0 is gonna drip from the RMS area for two simple reasons.

First off, the engine sits nose-up and any oil will run back to the RMS area. Secondly, the RMS area is also the lowest point on the engine. Simple physics and the old plumber's adage apply here. "$hit flows downhill".

Valve cover gasket, oil pressure sending unit, oil filter adapter seals and distributor gasket, in that order, have to be eliminated as possibilities first.

Revised 02-26-2013

Thanks for the replies all. For some reason i didn't get notifications of your posts till today, damn tapatalk.

To reply-
Oil filter adapter was already redone last fall

Ccv system was all cleaned and replaced last year.

The blue dowel pins now come with the fel-pro 1 piece oil pan gasket.

Valve cover gasket was done year ago. Trust me cruiser, i have taken my time to verify, working from the top down.

I also wanted to do the lower seals so i could get a good look inside the engine. A PO had already done the RMS, they had 2 journal caps swapped. Not knowing how long ago that happened, i left them. Otherwise i was happy how clean it was inside.

Only two things I can add, exhaust leak blowing on the block can thin the oil and cause leaks, but it also shows up in the summer on long freeway runs with as a hot engine... Lastly I had poor ignition on two cylinders due oil seal valve stem leaks that slowly thinned the oil with small amount of gasoline over time that caused slow leaks and low oil pressure.

Better spark plugs NGK, and new valve stem seals solved that problem, as did a new exhaust donut on the exh-manifold to down pipe connection.

The rest of the common stuff is well covered already....BTW, new CCV lines make a huge difference in engine idle stability on Renix jeeps that are otherwise vacuum leak free and solve many strange oil leaks also.

How many miles on her? The valve in the back of the valve cover is Your CCV valve if it is clogged it can be the cause of oil getting into the air box/filter. If not that then most likely worn piston rings or bad valve seals. The oil filter adapter housing seals is one of the most common large oil leak problems.

Any valve cover gaskets leaks can lead to a by pass air flow condition that allows the crankcase pressure to build enough to throw oil into the air filer too as well as cause idle speed control issues. Tight vacuum lines and tight CCV line seals and valve cover gasket tight seals are super important for oil control and idle speed control and the small diameter rear CCV line ID clogs all too easy too, but it is sized as a throttle / idle flow rate control as well, so new CCV tube and the valve is a great idea!!!!

Hate to say, but 90% of the replies have not read my OP or my replies. I appreciate replies, but not repeatedly be told to do the repairs i already have done.

Do not be upset. Many people read these posts and gain information from the members' responses.