how big thing it is to change rear main seal?

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i have pontiac firebird 92 v6 3.1 112500 miles on it. i have a small oil leak,probaly rear main seal. it is leaking somewhere back of the motor and a bit high,about a bit higher where oil pan is.how big or expensive thing it would be to change rear main seal? is there need to take engine or transmission apart? one car mechanic told me that it takes maybe six hours to fix the leak. what you guys think??
 
to change the rear main, the engine needs to be seperated from the transmission. I'm not that familiar with the 60deg V6's, but on a SBC/90deg v6, you also need to drop (or loosen) the pan to get the rear main seal housing out.
 
Apparantly, where the distributor used to be, there's an O-ring that dries out.

It's not in that easy a place to get at, and has often been mistaken for a main seal leak.

Try asking in mechanical tips.
 
It might be worth it to give some Auto-RX a try before you go through all of that.

I had a friend with a Ford Ranger with a rear seal leak. In about 3,000 is was not leaking anymore with the Auto-RX.

Just a thought.
 
it dosnt leak much,maybe few drops every couple minutes,it has been leaking three months now,and i can just see that oil level is a bit lower,but just barely.im gonna fix it later.but at long that it dosnt leak too much,im gonna keep it the way it is. is there a change that my oil sensor is leaking? does anyone know where my oil sensor and oil sender unit are located??
confused.gif
 
It can be your oil pressure sensor as that does create a hole in an oil passageway that needs sealing. What the odds that this would leak are compared to other things is small but worth investigating.

Best thing to try is to get some UV dye and add it to your oil, then use a UV "black" flourescent light to find the glowing leak.

You should ask this same question in this forum.
 
I've heard oil pressure sensor leaks are fairly common, and my girlfriend's MX-6 has one right now! It's probably losing less than half a quart per change so I'm not going to do anything unless it becomes an annoyance.
 
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