Another rear main question

Changed my oil yesterday and now my rear main seal is leaking so bad I don't even want to drive it. I drove around 5km yesterday after changing the oil and when I checked the oil this morning, I had lost about a half qt. of oil. When sitting it doesn't lose much, maybe a few drops overnight but once the engine is warm and running it loses 1 drop/3 seconds..that's ALOT of oil running down my driveway.
When I got it a few weeks ago, it had a slight rear main leak, but barely dropped any oil over a tankful of gas--I figured I'd be fine for a while. Now I change the oil and it's leaking like the exxon valdez.

So, I crawled under the jeep and wiped everything clean, it's not leaking from the oil filter o-rings, it's not leaking from the valve cover gasket and it's definately not tranny fluid. So, I can pretty much be certain that it's the rear main seal, right? I just wanted to be certain before I start tearing things apart. I have read the write-ups and it seems pretty straight forward--I hope.
Ive attached a picture just to confirm this is the leaky rear main before I go tearing into things, can someone please quickly confirm as I'll drop the pan tonight so I have less things to do tommorow.
I ordered the fel-pro double lip seal and a new oil pan gasket a few minutes ago--should be in tommorow morning. I have no uncovered garage to work in at the moment and a small opening of clear--but freezing coldweather for the next two days. I sure as hell hope I can get this looked after before it starts snowing or raining again.

Did you put synthetic oil in when you changed it? Had a shop do that to my old Chevy and the rear main started leaking like crazy. Drained and put regular oil back in and the leak stopped.

I'd check that the oil pan is on correctly and that the bolts are all torqued to spec. I think mine were 17 fp.

I used pennzoil 10w30. I just did some googling and saw a comment about pennzoil causing a leak to get worse in another engine because there are "too many additives" in the oil. It's just regular old dino-juice..not synthetic, but maybe the detergent in the new oil cleaned out some junk that was holding the seal together.

It's REALLY pouring oil out, I didn't even drive it the 20km's to the parts store earlier today because I was worried it would run bone dry and lock up. When I bought it I had a small leak, but like I said it was nothing compared to this. The leak was on par with what I see on every other older XJ.

Has anyone succesfully used anything like lucas or bar-leak? I'm usually against engine additives but if the new oil caused things to loosen up..ah hell who am I kidding I just need to replace it.

Fish'nCarz said:

I'd check that the oil pan is on correctly and that the bolts are all torqued to spec. I think mine were 17 fp.

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yeah I checked that earlier, no dice. thanks tho

One other thing that might be important. Yesterday while changing the oil I cleaned out the breather on the valve cover, the one with the "elbow" that has a line running to the air box. this part never had a "tight" fit and just kind of flopped around, it definately wasn't a tight fit. While I was pulling the tube running to the air box off, the rubber cracked a bit right where it seats into the valve cover. Because it didn't have a tight fit before(it wasn't airtight in the least bit, it was just sitting there pretty much) I figured it wouldn't be a problem now that it has a crack in it.
From what I understand, if the CCV is plugged it'll cause too much pressure and blow the rear main. This is the opposite problem though. It never had much pressure and was always loose, so it really shouldn't have caused any problems, right?
My oil pressure has always been up to spec, and still is despite the small tear.

Hmmm...I've gone through and replaced my rear main seal twice now and it's still leaking. Looks just like yours. I'm waiting till spring to do it again...just need to find a better seal, since the Mopar one doesn't seem to help at all. Hadn't heard of the Fel-Pro double lip......good reviews on them?

it sounds like it will do a better job judging by the posts I have read. Do a search for "BS40612" this is the P/N from felpro and will return a few discussions about the seal. I sure as hell hope it stops the leaking...I'm on lay-off right now and money is running out, but I don't even want to drive the jeep right now because it's leaking so much oil from the rear main.

the double-lip will also apperantly act as added insurance in case the crank is slightly grooved--I'm not certain though.

clunk said:

the double-lip will also apperantly act as added insurance in case the crank is slightly grooved--I'm not certain though.

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I'll have to give it a try, since mine still leaks just as much as it did before I replaced the seal....go figure

dadilius said:

I'll have to give it a try, since mine still leaks just as much as it did before I replaced the seal....go figure

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yeah apperantly the oem seal easily wears a groove into the crankshaft, and the leaking is caused just as much by the groove in the crankshaft as the shoddy seal so by putting in a new OEM seal it'll just keep leaking from the groove.
The double lip seal will eliminate the problem apperantly. I really hope so...the jeep runs great and I love driving it, so I'm not giving up on it too easily haha.

just one more question;
reading various write ups, I notice one difference between 5-90's write up and everyone elses. He doesn't use sealant on the bearing cap after putting in a new lower seal. other write ups(and the FSM it seems) say it is mandatory.
5-90 reports no leakage after years of use...I don't want to do this again so should I just use the sealant? Should I use loctite 518 or is there a better sealant?
thanks again, this site is great!