I'm getting my brakes done today (I refuse - absolutely hate brakes. Just rather pay.) and while its there I had them check to see if they could find my oil leak.  I'm dripping out about a quart every 4-5 days.  Some gets on the exhaust pipe and it smokes when I stop.  Kinda embarassing to have people thinking your cars on fire all the time.

Anyway - they just called and said they think the oil leak is the main front crank shaft seal (they just do brakes...)....  Does that make sense?  How hard on a 1 to 10 (have FSMs)? 

newbie thanks
-Scott

If it's getting on the exhaust, I doubt it's the front seal ... my guess would be from the distributor.

Distributor is a possibility, but I'd bet valve cover gasket... It's cork and easily deformed and pretty easy to change.

You might also have a front crank seal leak as they said, but I would doubt if it would get on the exhaust from there. I've run a tracker for a while with a leaking front seal and never had any get on the exhaust, but when the valve cover gasket was leaking, I had a lot of oil burning off the manifold...

Very easy to change I would say a level #1.  I would also suspect the distributor seal or the valve cover gasket as well.  Any of which are very easy to do.  You might also check your pcv and hoses for restrictions.  My .02 worth

If I was you I'd get rid of it!   How much do ya want?  JUST kidding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

or it could be the seal that I have leaking.  Its the cover around the front crank on the left side of the motor up front.  it runs down the oil pan, and drips on the exhaust by the cat. 

I'm pissed, this seal looks like it'll be a bitch to replace.

...Anyway - they just called and said they think the oil leak is the main front crank shaft seal (they just do brakes...)....  Does that make sense?  How hard on a 1 to 10 (have FSMs)? 

newbie thanks
-Scott

You think brakes are bad, changing the front seal is a HUGE PITA!  A 10 for sure!

Looking at the FSM, you'll see that you need to take off the fan, the harmonic balancer (Five hard-to-see bolts. Use a mirror), the timing belt cover, the crankshaft bolt that holds the lower timing belt gear in place, and then the oil pump where the seal resides.

I have a small leak on my front seal that is indicated by oily dirt caking around the lower front of the block

That said,

I would look very closely at the distributor o-ring seal. It runs around the hole where the end of the camshaft sticks out and drives the distributor.  The distributor seal is a tough one to get into place when doing assembly/disassembly there.  One way to hold that O-ring in place is to rub it down with some Syl-Glide brand silicone so it will stick into place during reinstallation. There is also an o-ring seal on the bottom of the distributor that the distributor pivots on when you adjust the timing.  Sometimes it can get a bit mangled if you remove the distributor in an effort to reset the timing.

 And, as others have said, the valve cover gasket.

You might have better luck finding the leak by first power-cleaning the block, the transmission and under the truck to remove all the oil and gunk.  Drive it a bit to better see where the fresh leaking is coming from.

Hope this helps!

You don't need to pull the oil pump
to replace the front seal, use a seal
pick and pull it out, tap the new one in

if you don't have a seal pick you can do the old back tarder trick and use a course threaded screw,, like a dry wall screw and pull it you with a pair of vise grips( ) but the seal pick works the best..lol

oops!! i ment to say back yarder...... i'll get this spelling thing right one day....lol