Under ideal circumstances, I'd figure about 2-3 hours to change a rope seal, assuming the upper half could be slipped into place with a Sneaky Pete tool. It will be necessary to loosen all the main bearing caps a couple of turns to let the crankshaft drop away from the upper seal a few thousandths, but I've never had to do anything drastic like pull the transmission to put a rear seal in. If the trans is out anyway for a clutch change, that would make a rear rope seal job easier, but it still wouldn't be a 30-minute job, more like 1 1/2 hours at least. Don't do something stupid like try to put a lip seal in a 216- - - -the groove in the block and cap aren't machined for it.
Jerry
