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Reply to "Engine Leaks"

What are your engine specs, @Marshall?

Almost any modified T1 engine able to rev to 6500+ RPM or with a larger bore (especially with 94s) will pressurize the crankcase enough to push oil out from behind the crank pulley. In an amazing act of courage and hopefulness, the Sainted German Engineers didn't see fit to put an actual seal there-- they relied on a "slinger" and some grooves cut in the pulley hub to get the oil back in the crankcase.

With increased displacement, there's an enormous amount of swept area in the cylinders, with the pistons creating all kinds of turbulance inside the size-tiny crankcase. Add a little (or a lot, depending) of blow-by past the rings, and you've got a fair amount of pressure built up. By far the easiest place to relive that pressure is at what would be the crank seal, assuming there was a seal (which there isn't).

Almost everybody puts a cute little breather box up high, and tries to relieve as much pressure as possible through it, but at the end of the day-- unless you've got a really, really good ring seal (and you probably don't), oil is going to push out from behind the pulley. the pulley picks it up and throws a nice line across the inside of your deck-lid, and surround tin. It's how you know there's still oil in it.

You can help a bit by reducing the oil level in the crankcase, assuming you have an extended sump, but keep in mind that this is playing with fire. Running out of oil in a long sweeping bend is bad for the soul.

As hard as it is to accept-- if you like bouncing off redline, you're going to spray some oil around-- especially if you have a stroked engine, and double especially if you have 94s. Some battles are possible to win, others are mostly "managed".

If you hate it (and I do)-- you can always dry sump it, get thick-wall 92s, go with Deeves rings and a Total-Seal second, and hope for the best like (*ahem*) some silly people. Otherwise... acceptance is the final (of seven) stage of grief.

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