I made it to my motel outside of Atlanta, but not without a little drama. First, the car ran great the whole way. I got into a couple of traffic jams in the heat of the day in Atlanta, but the car never went above 200*. Seems it'll do ok in the heat down here.
The drama was with the oil leak. I was happily cruising along when I noticed my pressure starting to fluctuate between 63-57 lbs. That was odd because the pressure never fluctuates unless it's RPM related. I stopped to check things out and found that it was 3 quarts low, and I was running 6 quarts. That's when I discovered the rear main leak. That was at about the 350 mile mark last night, so about a quart every 100 miles. But some of that was coming out from around the distributor also. I filled it back up and went on my way, hoping it wouldn't get worse. I checked it every fill-up and had to add about a quart or so. I could live with that as long as it didn't get worse.
I slept in the car last night at a Holiday Inn parking lot. I was too cheap to spend the money for 5 hours in a bed...lol Anyway, I filled the car up this morning, topped it off with oil and went on my way. In less than 100 miles the oil pressure started fluctuating again. That gave me a sick feeling thinking the rear main seal was giving out and getting worse. Lots of thoughts about not being able to make the week, or even getting it back home went through my head. 3+ quarts of oil in less than a hundred miles is a lot. I pulled over as soon as I could, looked under the car and saw oil dripping everywhere. I thought I was done for at that point. I opened the hood to check the oil....and found that the last guy that filled it up forgot to put the dipstick back in. It was still sitting on the fenderwell
When I find that guy, I'm gonna give him 'what for' for being such a bonehead!
I filled it back up with oil, put the dipstick back in and crawled under the car. It was odd that nearly everything was dry, except for the left side of the engine and engine bay. I was wiping everything down when I found that the dipstick tube was also a culprit of the leaking. I hadn't pulled it out to reseal it when I was going through the engine. Ugh, shortcuts always bite you in the butt! I'm letting the car cool off now and then I'll head out to see if I can pull it and seal it up. If I can't get it out, I'll just try to get some sealer around it and stop it or slow it down.
The oil loss problem did seem to do much better with the dipstick in though..lol So I think if I can get the dipstick and distributor leaks down, the rear main isn't leaking near as bad as I had thought, and I should be ok to make it through the week.
Drew, it has a new seal on the distributor. I used every seal in the rebuild kit that I got, except for the rear main
I even tried putting a little Ultra Black behind the distributor seal and let it set up before I installed it, hoping it would put a little more pressure on the outside, because I know the RPM's tend to leak when your cruising at high speeds. I think the hole is a bit on the big side, or the replacement seals are too small, I'm not sure exactly which. Either way, I'm gonna try Barrys rubber band trick behind the seal and see if that'll put enough pressure on it to seal it up better. Now I just have to find a rubber band somewhere..lol
Heo, the RPM doesn't have that hole. I had to grind off the pin in the block when I had everything apart, to make the intake fit.
I also noticed black smoke on the drivers side exhaust when I punched it on one on-ramp. I don't know why only on one side, and why now, because it didn't do that before. It wasn't oil burning, it was obviously rich on that side, but only when I was into the throttle. I have a little investigating to do there.
So I'm gonna head back out and see what I can do with things, but at this point, it looks like I'll at least make it to the event. The engine seems happy though, it starts at the bump of the key every time and never misses a beat.