When my dads 2002 Suburban 5.3L with 124k miles was in for a u joint repair, the tech said he noticed the rear main seal was leaking. Now, I've never seen a single spot of oil on the driveway, so I assume it only leaks when the engine is running and the pressure pushes it out. It needs a quart of oil every 1300 miles or so, but I always just assumed it burned it. It's been losing a qt/1300 miles for over 5 years now.
Anyway, the point of this is to find out if moving to a different oil viscosity will help it out. I have been putting PYB 5w-30 in it for years now.
Rear Main Seal Leak
- Thread starter RoGuE
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Try a high mileage oil
A HM oil or Lubro Moly makes a product called Motor Oil Saver IIRC. It is good for leaking engines, and got some good reports here on Bitog.
One other thought: keep on keeping on.
Nothing's changed in 5 years; it's really consistent from what you've said.
But then being a BITOGer, you may proceed to over-think the problem [he said with self-accusation] ;-)
THAT said, the LubroMoly product gets good reviews as does AT-205 Reseal. I tried the former with no changes and haven't (yet) tried the latter. I understand it's only available at repair shops.
One plus is the rear mains on the Chevy may not be an expensive repair depending which one you have.
Do a few oci's with Maxlife HM 5W30...
I wouldn't expect any miracles with the suggestions above, HM and higher viscosity oils will help to a degree. Just don't go in expecting to half the rate that it's consuming at the moment. As suggested though, a RMS in a Small Block really isn't that big of a job on a large truck-- infact a complete reseal isn't that big a deal on a SBC, you're only talking about a single cam seal, oil pan, VCG's, VSS's if you want, and RMS in total.. However, I would expect alot of that is blow-by from the rings if you're not seeing visable remnants on the pavement, more so since we're talking about a SBC-- the list of 100K+ GM V8's which do not consume oil that I know of is very small.
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Originally Posted By: TFB1
Originally Posted By: RoGuE
tech said he noticed the rear main seal was leaking. Now, I've never seen a single spot of oil on the driveway,
Thanks for the replies!
I forgot to mention that I had used Pennzoil HM for probably the past 2 years, except for the last couple OCIs due to the rising cost of it compared to the conventionals and the fact that I never noticed a difference in oil loss.
Originally Posted By: RoGuE
Thanks for the replies!
I forgot to mention that I had used Pennzoil HM for probably the past 2 years, except for the last couple OCIs due to the rising cost of it compared to the conventionals and the fact that I never noticed a difference in oil loss.
I apologize. I forgot about it due to the fact that it never made a difference compared to regular PYB.
I currently use 5w-30 all year round. Could a thicker oil like 5w-40 or 10w-40 help?
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