Fel Pro rear seal issues

[Racer18]

Been using the rear main seals that come with the 2702 RACE set, and last 4 have leaked. Replaced with the brown seal from a stock gasket set, and cures it. Anyone else having this problem? At first I thought coincidence, but now not so sure. 4 different engines, (all sbc's), and 4 leaks. Been doin this for a long time and have never had this much trouble!! Hate the thought of taking an engine to the test stand because of this trouble.!

[avengerengines]

I can't remember ever having a problem with that seal.

[Racer18]

I know, Ive been using them forever too, never had an issue. Bought 15 of the 2702 sets this year, all from same batch I'm guessing.

[speedymatt]

i had one leak a few weeks ago too. Took the motor back out pulled pan and checked seal everything look fine. Put in new rear seal and pan gasket and it fixed leak. I did have an 1803 pan gasket set a couple of weeks ago that had the rear end seal that was made about a quarter inch too short.

[k-star]

Funny, About a year ago I was in a fight with a 2 piece to one piece rear seal adapter on a small block chevy. I couldn't get the 2 piece seal to stop leaking. I checked about 4 or 5 fel-pro seals for the lip internal diameter. Some of them measured bigger then the crank diameter. It got me to wondering how any of them even seal. I asked here and a few other forums and come to the conclusion that no one has ever checked that diameter to see what it is. I have no idea what it is supposed to be, but I can tell you that the seal with the smallest lip diameter was the one that stopped the leak, the rest went into the trash.

Not much of an answer, but your not the only one that ever fought this battle..L.O.L. Up until you posted this I thought I was the only one, now there is a group of 2...

Keith

[Baprace]

Add me to that list, now I know there is three of us, I have had my share of leakers.

[BlitzA64]

I have one right now that is weeping. It is not horrible but it leaves a small puddle after a week or so.....

[rfoll]

Same thing here, FelPro seal leaked, upon dissasembly found no reason for it to leak.

[ProPower engines]

I have had several issues with seals on 1 piece seal cranks. It just sucks to have to put a repair sleeve on a new crank to get the seal to work correctly. the guys using a 2 piece seal setup have to install the seal 1st and confirm the ID of the seal to their crank's sealing area. A good practice but no reason for the ID to be coming smaller during manufacturing.
Not sure who they are sub'd out to but their QC sure sucks these days..

[ALKYAL]

just found out i have a customer with one leaking now. did not leak when engine was first
run. he didnt put a pilot brg in crank and had a vib. about 200 miles. blames me! it is a fel-pro 2 pc blue. even did the stand the engine on the the crank flange end in transport stand with oil in it NO leaks-even rotated by hand a few turns and let it sit overnight-no leaks then. opinions?

[k-star]

Another thing I noticed when I was checking some of the seals was that they all were not a true 180 deg segment.

So this is where we are at as builders, we now need a 10 step inspection process to see if the rear main seal is usable? Because the manufacturer let them out to the cheapest vendor......


Keith

[Racer18]

We have checked a few other felpro seals, and these things are all over the place !!! So sick of eating oil pan sets and labor at this point, looks like qc was on vacation when these blue seals were made. You can actually see differences in how they are centered, without measuring! Just one more thing we have to check, and won't get paid for. Anyone know who to contact at Felpro? I have lost about 3 days time so far this year repairing leaks that were the fault of the parts, and not my assembly technique. I would understand if we were cutting corners and buying cheap parts, but we are buying the good stuff and seeing this poor quality? Let me guess, outsourced to China? Hard to explain to my customers why their $20,000 engine leaks more than their old bomber engine they threw together in the back yard. Sorry for the rant, but, dangit!

[ProPower engines]

Seems to me there is several seal designs available.
The std. blue seal that comes in every felpro rebuilder gasket set
Then there is a double lip optional seal for worn crank seal surfaces.
Then there is a offset double lip seal
And the HP seal.And also the seal for a line bored seal housing in a 400 sm blk that's been line honed.
I have never had issues with the std. double lip seal leaking. Others not so much.
Maybe this is one of those combined seal application deals where they have used a common seal design and now they are sold as a one seal fits all deal that we all don't know about.
Cost saving measures the bean counters get their hands on to save some production costs???
The other thing is are you confirming the cranks seal surface is at max diameter or minimum diameter?

That can also play a part in this. Crank suppliers seem to be sizing shafts on low limit and maybe your issues are caused by a smaller then usual seal surface. The last 10-15 cranks I have had in the last month or so have all been low spec on the rods and mains so why not the seal surface.I have had similar issues with the 1 piece cranks and I have just put speddi-sleeves on from the get go to insure the seal is doing its job.
The brown seal seems to be the least trouble some and seal housing alignment is dead on.
As for the 2 piece seal the only conclusion I can come to is sizing the seal slightly smaller= less manufacturing cost
Same with journal size less material to grind off= less cost in labour and material used for finished product.

A call to felpro's tech line to rant aboutv the crapy seals will get you no where but a warranty claim to suppliers for the lost time on defective parts will get someone's attention.

[novadude]

Are the new blue fel-pro seals a different material than the old grey seals that used to come in the fel-pro SBC "rebuilder" gasket sets 10-12 years ago? I have one of the old grey seals in a sealed package, and I noticed the durometer seeme a little higher on the old seal. Not sure how much age comes into play, but this grey seal has been in cool, dark, dry storage for the last 10-12 years. Just curious if anyone knows what changed when they started making them blue.

[donc]

Have had problems with 1 piece seals, id isnt right,these all were brown. Lastweek had a blue 2 piece fel-pro, lock upcrank on install, further checking found seal not made properly. Back to the grey double wipers for now.