Hi all,
I know oil leaks have been covered to near sickness, but I can't seem to find this answer. I replaced the blown engine in my 81 4wd with a rebuilt 22r of the same vintage that had 2800 miles on the rebuild. The guy said it ran great, had a bit more powerful cam, double row timing chain and other assorted new goodies, but that it had a front seal leak. He gave me an oil seal, o-ring and I put a sleeve on it before install just to make sure it was OK.
Well it turns out the leak is from the right side of the timing cover and not the oil pump or front seal. My question. Is the timing chain housing under pressure or does it merely rely on splash for lubrication? Someone suggested that the timing chain housing could be sealed from the outside if it wasn't under pressure thus eliminating oil pan remove and disassembly to fix the drips. Sorry about the long description. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I don't really want to drop the oil pan. I put a lot of effort into making sure IT didn't leak. Fred

 

Should be no pressure inside the cover, but some of the lower bolts do go into oil passages as I recall and they need to have sealant applied to the threads before installing the bolts.

 

Thanks for the info. Re-torqueing bolts and sealing them is a hell of a lot easier than tearing off an oil pan. Fred: