Front Crankshaft seal leak replacement

[Ecrews06]

I just finished up doing the AFM/DOD delete on my 2013 GMC Yukon Denail and it seems i have a front crank seal leak. When installing the new OEM seal and balancer, i did not put any sealant on the outside of the seal or grease the inside of the seal prior to the balancer installation.

3 questions:
1. Upon re installation of the seal, is common practice to put sealant on the outside and grease or oil the inside?
2. Are there any best practices to hold the crankshaft still while we tighten the bolt outside of wedging a pry bar in between the balancer? If i can stick pry bar in the sprocket of the flywheel, will that be able to take the torque needed to fully tighten down the crank bolt?
3. I bought an ARP bolt this time around. The ARP website says to torque to 235 ft lbs, is that correct? That seems like an awful lot.

Any help is appreciated. I cleaned up all the excess oil and verified the leak was coming from the seal, i have included a picture.

 

[Foggy]

Oil seals should always be "pre" lubricated at the metal/moving surfaces... So DON"T put
it in dry... I usually use a little sealant on the outside of the front seals - the metal to timing cover
surface - some seals do not "require" it, but I always do...
As for install: If using an ARP bolt... Use loctite and the force of a moderate 1/2" drive
air impact is sufficient -about 125lbs... it will be fine for stock type installs.
Don't use a prybar to hold the flexplate still, there a specific tool made for that. But like
I said, an impact is fine for the ARP bolt (not the gm bolt).
There is also a "tool" made to center the timing cover seal in the correct place..
They are made of plastic and pretty cheap.. Look at summit racing or others.
Hope this helps when you ReDo the seal install

 

[OR VietVet]

I can tell you how I have done it. I do use a thin film of chassis grease on the inner lip. I also used to use 3M Weatherstrip, very thin film on the outer lip and made sure the new seal outer lip and the cavity it pressed in to was completely clean and dry. I then let it set up for 1 hour before installing the balancer. Then I used to use a flywheel turning wrench that had a curved span with a hook that I could turn to where it was wedged and not allow any further movement. The 235 ft. lbs. is correct, IMO. I have also seen people use a block of wood to wedge at the flywheel/flex plate teeth.

 

[iamdub]

I just finished up doing the AFM/DOD delete on my 2013 GMC Yukon Denail and it seems i have a front crank seal leak. When installing the new OEM seal and balancer, i did not put any sealant on the outside of the seal or grease the inside of the seal prior to the balancer installation.

3 questions:
1. Upon re installation of the seal, is common practice to put sealant on the outside and grease or oil the inside?
2. Are there any best practices to hold the crankshaft still while we tighten the bolt outside of wedging a pry bar in between the balancer? If i can stick pry bar in the sprocket of the flywheel, will that be able to take the torque needed to fully tighten down the crank bolt?
3. I bought an ARP bolt this time around. The ARP website says to torque to 235 ft lbs, is that correct? That seems like an awful lot.

Any help is appreciated. I cleaned up all the excess oil and verified the leak was coming from the seal, i have included a picture.

Per the GM manual, the front and rear seals are designed to be installed dry. I use black Permatex on the outside of the seal to glue and seal it to the aluminum cover. I've never greased the seal lip that contacts the crank. The seal is designed to wear itself to the crank within the first minute or so of running. This "custom fitting" makes up for any variations in manufacturing and wear between the parts.

The critical factor is alignment of the cover. If you don't have it within the tight specified tolerances, the seal will wear more on one side and leak. I can't tell from your pic if it's leaking from the inner or outer edge of the seal. There's not much chance of it leaking where it presses into the cover, but it's not impossible, either. I also can't tell if the seal is installed with proper orientation. There's always a chance the seal is defective.

 

[Ecrews06]

So I have reinstalled the new seal however while I have the balancer off I was looking at it kind of closely and it looks like there are few grooves on the collar of the balancer. I have attached a picture. Would these little imperfections cause problems when reinstalled and trying to have that seal actually seal properly?! Should I take some emery cloth to is?!

 

[OR VietVet]

Lightly buff and clean up. That is the wear where the old seal rubber was at. I see no groove but do see a rub there that will clean up easily. You can take a net pad, like is used on a w/s when cleaning off bugs, and will swipe around and clean right up. I still say a very thin film of grease at the seal lip that would rub there, would be ok but as has been said, sounds like is not needed in someone else's opinion. After all, that is what we offer here, opinions.

 

[iamdub]

Lightly buff and clean up. That is the wear where the old seal rubber was at. I see no groove but do see a rub there that will clean up easily. You can take a net pad, like is used on a w/s when cleaning off bugs, and will swipe around and clean right up. I still say a very thin film of grease at the seal lip that would rub there, would be ok but as has been said, sounds like is not needed in someone else's opinion. After all, that is what we offer here, opinions.

Agreed. And, in this instance, I just chose to convey the opinions of GM's engineers.

 

[OR VietVet]

I know but that is exactly why I said, opinions. We all have them, right or wrong or the same but said in a different way. I am so old school sometimes that I just have only one way of saying things. Thankfully, some of the new ways of doing things are spelled out here and I pay attention.

 

[iamdub]

I know but that is exactly why I said, opinions. We all have them, right or wrong or the same but said in a different way. I am so old school sometimes that I just have only one way of saying things. Thankfully, some of the new ways of doing things are spelled out here and I pay attention.

I dig it. Speaking of GM engineers, there are PLENTY of us that would disagree with their "opinions". Yet, they're far more agreeable with than German auto engineers!

 

[RST Dana]

Am I dreaming or did we have an option to slide a thin collar on balancers back in the day that we’re perfectly smooth? Thin enough to work with standard size seal too.