Flywheel cover leak

Tiger98

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Dec 31, 2023
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Indiana
I'm getting an oil leak from the bottom of the fly wheel cover plate. What could that be from? Is it because the middle bolt is missing or should oil not be back there anyway? I don't remember it dripping out of there before and the bolt has been missing since I got it

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Well since someone siliconed it you now have probably a half quart of oil trapped in there.

It is either a back of valve cover leak or a rear main seal.

You need to get in there and drain all the oil, remove the silicone and clean everything. Then run it and see where the oil is coming from.

You do not need silicone there
 
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Well since someone siliconed it you now have probably a half quart of oil trapped in there.

It is either a back of valve cover leak or a rear main seal.

You need to get in there and drain all the oil, remove the silicone and clean everything. Then run it and see where the oil is coming from.

You do not need silicone there

I put that there yesterday thinking that a bolt was missing in the middle and it wasn't sealed tightly. I'll remove it.

When I was cleaning the rear bearing I accidentally removed some of the black strip in the middle and put a little strip of rtv where it broke off in the meantime. I attached a pic of what I'm talking about. It's not mine but from a video. Do you know if the strip can be replaced or if a new bearing would be required and if that could be what's causing the leak from the flywheel cover? I don't think it was doing that before and I didn't do anything with the rear main seal so that's the only change.

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Just for clarity purposes..you replaced the rear main seal? And you removed the bearing cap and cleaned it?
 
Just for clarity purposes..you replaced the rear main seal? And you removed the bearing cap and cleaned it?

I replaced the oil pan gasket and changed the oi but didn't do anything to the rear main seal. When I was scraping rtv and hard oil residue off the rear crankshaft bearing I chipped off the middle of that black lip in the picture and put a small strip of rtv there to try to remedy my mistake as best I could with what I had. I don't know if you can get those black strips or have to buy the whole crankshaft bearing it's attached to.

Update: So I cut out the silicone off of the flywheel cover and like an ounce of old oil came out. Then I took it for a drive and no more leak so maybe it was just left over and stuck up there from when I had the bad leak yesterday. Maybe the gasket change and rtv took care of my problem, that's my hope anyway lol
 
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I replaced the oil pan gasket and changed the oi but didn't do anything to the rear main seal. When I was scraping rtv and hard oil residue off the rear crankshaft bearing I chipped off the middle of that black lip in the picture and put a small strip of rtv there to try to remedy my mistake as best I could with what I had. I don't know if you can get those black strips or have to buy the whole crankshaft bearing it's attached to.

Update: So I cut out the silicone off of the flywheel cover and like an ounce of old oil came out. Then I took it for a drive and no more leak so maybe it was just left over and stuck up there from when I had the bad leak yesterday. Maybe the gasket change and rtv took care of my problem, that's my hope anyway lol

Keep an eye on it..you may be lucky but time will tell. I'm hoping you got it fixed and can get out there and enjoy your jeep
 
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Keep an eye on it..you may be lucky but time will tell. I'm hoping you got it fixed and can get out there and enjoy your jeep

I hope so too. It's my daily driver and i have a long commute so I need it working lol. Plus I love the thing and it's a blast :) Worst case scenario it starts dripping again and I at least know to get a rear main seal and black strip/crankshaft bearing. Thanks for all your help, P man!
 
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