I have been trying to find/stop an oil leak in my freshly rebuilt GMC 228, and need a little input from anyone who might have experienced this before.
As I said its a fresh rebuild, top to bottom, sitting on my 1950 GMC frame. This a frame off resto, so as you can imagine it's very frustrating getting a fresh rebuild back with an oil leak.
The oil I am seeing is coming down the passenger side of the inside of the bell housing. It is then just pooling on the bottom of the bell housing until there is enough there to drip to the floor. There is no oil on the lip of the oil pan where it meets the rear main bearing cap. That leads me to believe that it's not the rear main that is leaking (at least I hope it's not).
At first, I thought it was the rocket cover, coming out the back and down the side of the motor and pooling on the bottom of the bell housing. So I replaced that gasket (which was new from the rebuild). I continued to get the leak, so I thought it must be the rocker cover gasket. I replaced that (also new). Still got the leak, so replace the oil pan gasket to eliminate that. Still got the leak.
My next thing to try is to put some thread sealant on the bell housing attaching bolts to the block. I really don't want to disconnect the torque tube, pull the tranny and cluth again (another long story), but will if I have to in order to get to those bolts. I just wanted to check to see if anyone can confirm to me that the bell housing bolts go through to the oil galley. I especially don't want to pull all that stuff again if there is no need to, if someone tells me that there is no chance of oil coming from those bolts. It does look like the heads of those bolts are wet from oil, so that is why I am thinking that they may be the culprits. But there is also what looks like to be some gasket sealant on the heads of those bolts, that may have been slung on there from the main bearing cap. Gasket sealant that the machine shop put on there from the rebuild. Not sure if maybe the rear main is leaking, and the flywheel is slinging the oil to the passenger side of the bell housing, and then it's dripping down to where I am seeing it.
I know the saying "If it ain't leaking oil, it ain't got any in it," but I just want to get this resloved. Lots of money spent on this motor, and hate that it has a leak I can't seem to figure out. Any help would be appriciated, and I can forward some pictures on if it will help.
Thanks in advance,
Jake
