Had my rear main seal replaced when my trans was rebuilt a couple weeks ago hoping this would solve my leak problem, sadly i was mistaken the guys at the shop said that there were a few other spots leaking. The engine leaves a spot on the garage floor about three inches in diameter, engine only seems to leak after the car has been run for a day whereas when it sits for a week or so no oil leak. My question is what have you tried and found to work to reduce/stop oil leaks? All help appreciated!

 

could try to tighten up the pan bolts an see if it helps ,if its a pan leak ,i have heard storys of guys doing that an stopping the leaking ,if you can slow it down to a few drops a week

 

Each oil leak and situation is different. There is no generic fix. Re-tightening old gaskets can be risky cause you can crack the gasket and never go over the factory torque specs cause those are the limits the pans can handle not the bolts.

Condition of the engine can play a big parts. An engine with a lot of blow by is never going to seal, all you can really do is change where the leak is coming from. I have seen in many times. Reseal the main, valve covers blow out, reseal the valve covers, intake blows out.... Not say your car has blow by you just want to be sure your not fight that.

 

ok you need to think how old is it the car how many miles the shape of the car ,how much time you got left with you babey,if its a car you plan on keeping then look into getting them fixed an paying ,some people would never recomend stop leak ,but if your in the last year or few years of its life ,then mabey ,if its a good car ,then just sse alot of times the bolts loosen up then just re torq them down ,to specs to save few bucks an slow it down wont hurt to see if there loose ,wich car is in question hear ,its an lt1 i know that much miles ???,you may want to do it or not,if you plan on keeping it for a long time then do it right

 

Just an FYI stop leak is risky.

How it works.
Most seal material have a list of compatible fluids. These are fluids that will have no effect on the material. How stop leaks works "sometimes" is that old seals get hard and shrink, the stop leak will penetrate the seal material and soften and expand it and cause the seal to function again. The stop leak manufacture know the most common material so they have the right fluids to soften those seals.

So what is wrong with that?
Not all leaks is caused by shrunken or hard seal. Imagine what happens when seal is leaking because of a small tear. Softening and swell it is the last thing you want. You could go from annoying leak to un-drivable in a few weeks. Also the stop leak manufacture has no way to control the volume of the chemical is getting to a seal, its a guessing game. There is no guarantee the chemical they picked will have any effect on the material in your cars.

So why is it still around?
It works sometimes people save hundreds of dollars they tell every one for the next 20 years. The people that have no effect figure no big deal and don't talk about it and the people that have a massive failure 3 weeks late just assume it was going to fail anyways and never want to admit they did something the messed up their cars.

This is also the same concept behind Transmedic. But with slipping clutches your into a rebuild anyway so if a car has been sitting a long time and the transmission starts slipping. First you service it and that does nothing and the pan is not full of clutch you can try trans medic.

This information was taught me as part of my automotive degree, Much later in life I worked with (IMO) the best seal engineers in the world and they not only confirmed what my auto teachers told me that even in a lab setting with no guessing on materials altering a material with chemicals after it is in its finished form will always have difficult to predict results. I think Paul used the term "hooky at best".

 

again if the car is worth the fixing ,mabey your just better off to let it leak a little ,until you get get say the pan gasket done ,in our mind i know ,my 1995 lt1 when i got it ,it did not leak drop for 6 years then started to leak few drops,no big deal ,then a little more ,i know its mine then it was what happen to me ,my other seals started to leak ,but i was also hard on my lt1 too ,tough engine though

 

front and back of intake is a common leak point on the lt1. oil from the rear of the intake can drain down and kinda look like its coming from the rear seal.