She bled out last night

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datsunguy

New member
I woke up this morning to find a nice size puddle of truck blood on my driveway. Upon further inspection I suspect it happened on my drive home last night from work as the tailgate is caked and the entire frame of the truck is dripping. I register nothing on the dip stick because it is all on the ground. Do main seals bust like this on these trucks? Looks like that is where most of it is coming from - in between the block and the bell housing.

Anyone in seattle have experience fixing oil leaks on Sy's? My mechanic wants too much and even though he is good, he has littel experience with these trucks....HELP!!

Thanks - P
 
NCTyphoonKid

NCTyphoonKid

93 Ty #1710
Re: She bled out last night

My Ty done a similar thing and the seal at the oil filter adapter gave an dumped all the oil. Pat fixed it and about a month later the truck started sounding like a helicopter and toasted the motor.
 
ziembic

ziembic

Donating Member
Re: She bled out last night

It could be a lot of things. It seems like you are alluding to it being trans fluid, can you confirm this? It could be trans cooler lines or the rear main like you said. If it is oil it could be the remote oil filter lines. Either way it sucks.
 
the baPhoon

the baPhoon

Active member
Re: She bled out last night

Had similar symptoms.
The cross over tube rubbed a hole in the metal oil feed line.
Entire rear of the truck was caked in oil. No low oil pressure until I went to diagnose the leak the next am.

Just tossing out possibilities....
 
L

LOWBLAZERO1

New member
Re: She bled out last night

wheres the oil sending unit on these trucks? i know the w-code 4.3's are right where you are describing.
 
midnightbluS10

midnightbluS10

Banned
Re: She bled out last night

datsunguy said:
I woke up this morning to find a nice size puddle of truck blood on my driveway. Upon further inspection I suspect it happened on my drive home last night from work as the tailgate is caked and the entire frame of the truck is dripping. I register nothing on the dip stick because it is all on the ground. Do main seals bust like this on these trucks? Looks like that is where most of it is coming from - in between the block and the bell housing.

Anyone in seattle have experience fixing oil leaks on Sy's? My mechanic wants too much and even though he is good, he has littel experience with these trucks....HELP!!

Thanks - P
Click to expand...


There's nothing syty specific about fixing a leak. He's not tuning it, not rebuilding the transmission or engine. Not even Messing with the cladding. It's a leak that would occur exactly the same way on any 4.3L engine. What's got you so scared to let him mess with it?
 
D

datsunguy

New member
Re: She bled out last night

Chest - I think I caught it before any damage was done but there is no way to be 100% sure. I will be jacking this thing up in the PM and taking a real good look underneath...A quick look last night didn't point to anything but it did remind me of the Exxon Valdez spill.....Its is everywhere and I spent most of my energy scrubbing my driveway with degreaser.

I have searched and will check out the oil relocater gasket and the oil lines. It could be just gravity but all the pooling and leaking looks to be right at the main seal but again, too hard to tell until I investigate more.
 
whiteTy1214

whiteTy1214

New member
Re: She bled out last night

the baPhoon said:
Had similar symptoms.
The cross over tube rubbed a hole in the metal oil feed line.
Entire rear of the truck was caked in oil. No low oil pressure until I went to diagnose the leak the next am.

Just tossing out possibilities....
Click to expand...

my turbo drain hose also rubbed on my crossover pipe with the atr headers,
i have header wrap installed so it just oil soaked it and smelled like burnt oil till fixed for
$15

Also i changed the oil filter adapter seal to the block, it leaked pretty good
pulled the front driveshaft for clearance, also the left front wheel to reach in also.
another cheap fix.

brake clean the suspect area, top off engine oil first, run a few minutes while checking for the leak to confirm it. leaking that good should be eazy find.
 
D

datsunguy

New member
Re: She bled out last night

midnightbluS10 said:
There's nothing syty specific about fixing a leak. He's not tuning it, not rebuilding the transmission or engine. Not even Messing with the cladding. It's a leak that would occur exactly the same way on any 4.3L engine. What's got you so scared to let him mess with it?
Click to expand...

I am not scared just real picky and I with all the little tips and tricks and techniques I have read here, it would be advantageous for a guy to really understand the trucks. Maybe it is just me being anal.

Problem I have now is it needs to be towed where ever it lands to get fixed so I am hoping I can locate and remedy the hemorraghing so it is driveable.
 
D

datsunguy

New member
Re: She bled out last night

I searched and could not readily find a good list of gasket part numbers for all of the suspect "oil leaking" locations. Can someone provide this please - much appreciated!
 
Don W.

Don W.

Stab it and steer it
Re: She bled out last night

FWIW I doubt it's the rear main. That would require a huge increase in crankcase pressure among other things. I rather suspect, as others have said, that it's the oil filter adapter on the block or something close by. Follow the above advice, get her cleaned up, top off the crankcase, start 'er up see where the oil is coming from.

BTW, easy to tell if it's trans fluid, it's red.
 
D

datsunguy

New member
Re: She bled out last night

Don W. said:
FWIW I doubt it's the rear main. That would require a huge increase in crankcase pressure among other things. I rather suspect, as others have said, that it's the oil filter adapter on the block or something close by. Follow the above advice, get her cleaned up, top off the crankcase, start 'er up see where the oil is coming from.

BTW, easy to tell if it's trans fluid, it's red.
Click to expand...

This is my plan....It will take a few thousand rags and some Brake Kleen to get the job done but my goal is to locate the oil leak(s) and then pick up the necessary parts to fix. The tranny is fine i.e. no leaks.

I'll post back my findings this evening.
 
Chest Rockwell

Chest Rockwell

Active member
Re: She bled out last night

Paul, if you've got a place you can use it you're free to use my pressure washer to clean that engine up and find the leak source. It's over by Burien, just let me know if you're interested.
 
D

datsunguy

New member
Re: She bled out last night

Chest Rockwell said:
Paul, if you've got a place you can use it you're free to use my pressure washer to clean that engine up and find the leak source. It's over by Burien, just let me know if you're interested.
Click to expand...

I appreciate that Steve. I have a pressure washer at my place and plan on using it once the gaskets are replaced.

So last night I started digging in. I laid down a couple layers of cardboard underneath the truck, jacked her up all the way on 6 ton jack stands on all 4 corners and sprayed about 6 cans of brake kleen on the underside. I must have been leaking oil for some time because it was everywhere. It was caked up some 1/4" thick in some spots. I did notice that all the mess was down low and only on one side was really bad which tells me leaks from above are minimal at best. When I was done with inspection/spray down, I wiped everything up and let it drip dry.

Once it was dry I fired it up and looked underneath for anything obvious. It is leaking really bad from the block where the oil relocater bracket sits - imagine that! Other than the obvious culprit I can see the oil pan gasket weeping just a bit but for the most part everything else looks good. Oil hitting that prop shaft at highway speed would be like throwing a bag of dogdhit into a box fan - messy!

It looks as thought it is easy enough to get to and requires 2 gaskets? One for the bracket to block and one from the bracket to return and feed lines. Is this correct or do the lines from the filter back to the relocater fit dry? See pics...

oilleak4.jpg


Untitled.jpg
 
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