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MG MGA - Another Massive Oil Leak

We just returned from a nice, but very frigid trip to a famous hot spring area up north. I did have a significant oil leak several weeks ago, new engine side cover and tappet cover gaskets solved that, at least for low rpm around town cruising. For this trip we did an average of 70mph / 120km/h at about 4000rpm. Oil pressure was 60 psi, running temp was 170 with the heat on.

Over the 348 mile trip I lost almost 4 qts of oil, the majority when running at high speeds. When we would stop at a rest area, a literal pool of oil would develop instantly from the weep hole on the tranny. Running around town at more moderate speeds, the oil leak is reduced to an acceptable level (engine still at 60 psi under normal driving conditions).

I remember 2 years ago when the engine was rebuilt and before I knew much about scroll type seals, when the crankshaft was inspected I noticed that the scrolls were not sharp but rather flat. I thought nothing of it until now. My gut reaction is that the scroll seal is not whipping the oil back into the crankcase as it should and thus the oil leak.

A new felt seal was installed and again, during around town driving the oil leak is only a drip here and there.

Now, assuming that this is the case, I really should pull the motor and add a rubber crankshaft rear seal as outlined at Barney's site. Here lies the problem; finding someone to machine the slip ring for the crankshaft. In Japan, getting this done would be next to impossible as the mind set is to just replace the crankshaft and trying to convide a shop to do this would be a waste of time. Been there, done that. Other basic machine work will not be a problem.

Has anyone done this conversion, and if so, do they have a source of a machine shop that can make a slip ring?

Thanks,

Tom
Tom Baker

This thread was discussed on 12/02/2006

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