[Healeys] Rear seal kit

[Michael Oritt]

Michael--

Thanks for your input and I am certainly willing to forgo the expense and
trouble of having a rear seal fit if there is a strong chance of it not
being successful.
Besides (being an aging male) I should probably have the grace to allow my
car to have an occasional drip or two.

A couple of questions....

Q1--As said earlier my car does not have a great amount of leakage through
the cotter pin in the bell housing, though I do seem to remember that it
leaked more after the engine was freshly rebuilt about 70K miles ago.  My
oil pressure has also dropped about 10-15 psi from where it was after the
rebuild.  Assuming that a fresh engine will have higher oil pressure will
that result in higher crankcase pressures which would tend to increase
leakage past the scroll seal?

Q2--My car has an early aftermarket valve cover and looks like the ones
sold by Ray Juncal minus one fin and with a flat versus a slightly convex
top surface.  There is no vent nipple and it has a spring-loaded filler cap
that probably does not make a tight seal though there is no oil blow-by.
Is there a real advantage to installing a PCV valve and if so where should
the hose terminate?  I removed the original LeMans kit CAB some time back
and would prefer not to refit it.

Thanks--Michael Oritt


On Sat, Nov 4, 2023 at 4:04 PM Michael Salter <michaelsalter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I've fitted a couple of those kits and have been somewhat underwhelmed.
> Firstly you have to be VERY careful with the rear cap machining
> alignment,  definitely a case of measure twice, cut once. I would strongly
> recommend that the cap is in place on the block for this operation.
> Secondly I was very disappointed to find that the designers decided that
> it was just too much effort to utilize the 3 tapped holes already in the
> block to secure the upper half of the seal holder and instead required that
> one drill and tap 2 more holes for that purpose.
> Thirdly, and I appreciate that there is possibly no way around this but,
> the scroll on the crankshaft has to be machined off which is something that
> you should have your crank grinder do when the crank is being machined. I
> did mine in my 8" lathe and it's pretty scary having that huge hunk of
> steel spinning between centers (don't forget to disable the chuck brake ...
> rather frightening to notice the chuck winding off the spindle as you power
> it down😳😳).
> Finally, after all that effort, there was still a small leak from the rear
> main which I finally resolved by installing my PCV.
>  kit.
> https://precisionsportscar.com/austin-healey-100-engine-oil-leak-solution/
>
> In future I'm not going to bother with the seal kit and just fot the PCV.
>
> M
>
> On Fri., Nov. 3, 2023, 11:19 p.m. Michael Oritt, <michael.oritt at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I'm having my 100's engine done this winter and though it's not a
>> terrible leaker I''d like to install a rear seal kit to tighten things up
>> as much as possible.
>> I know there are several different kits available and would appreciate
>> any input on which one to select along with installation tips.
>>
>> Best--Michael Oritt
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