Clutch R&R questions

Wow!! My Detroit had so much blow by, I ran a hose back near the axles. It got plugged up with ice in a snow storm. It was leaking oil from every seal. Shut down due to low oil.I immediately took the breather tube off. All I had was a gallon of Lucas. It was enough to get it running. Drove a mile, it almost shutdown going up a hill. It took 6 more gallons of oil. After that it stopped leaking oil, except for the original leaks. I thought it was toast for sure, Lol. Ran a couple more yrs.

 

This was excess pressure under power, could have been bypassing valve guides, or a number of other reasons, under normal circumstances you would not notice that engine having blow by.

 

My seal style is different. If you could blow it past the wear ring, you've got bigger problems than needing a new seal. Might want to walk down the road and start looking for the crankshaft.

 

I appreciate everyone's help. Can't say it enough.

 

You back, playing truck driver?
Congrats on helluva job. Thanks for a very interesting thread
and taking us through it.
And cheers to the members that help everyone less knowledgeable and experienced!!!

 

Yep! Thanks. Other than the "rear main seal fiasco of 2020", it all went really smooth. I wasn't able to get my flywheel off Friday in time to get it turned, so I sat on my hands all weekend and that sucked. But that was more of a timing issue than a snag. And even if I was able to get it turned Friday, that just means I would have messed up the seal, and had to wait all weekend to get a new one anyway, so it's really a wash on the time frame.

 

For the future person that might happen upon this thread, I will say one thing for sure - when you set up the tranny jack initially, make sure it's perfect then and there. After I got the tranny out from under the truck, I had to mess around with my cherry picker to get it on the jack better so I could drag it over and pressure wash it. I thought I had it on there perfect, but I managed to get it to slide when I was taking out the front bearing. So then I had to fix it again. I seriously screwed around with that for a solid three hours. Lots of time wasted. And be careful. You've basically got the weight of a 350 Chevy on the jack, so don't drop it on yourself.

Also, plan ahead on a way to get the flywheel and clutch on and off the engine. I am not a weak man, and I can tell you a 150 lb clutch becomes a lot heavier when you're in an awkward position under a semi truck.

If you're not tooled out, you'll need a cheater pipe to get the two bolts on the tranny spring mount, and also for all the flywheel bolts. Everything else isn't terrible. Don't think your 1/2" gun will break them, because it probably won't. I have a good gun(Ingersoll Rand), buy my air situation is poor(line coming from tank to regulator is 1/4"). Your miles may vary.

Lastly, read and reread the posts in this thread. These guys are legit mechanics and know what they're talking about. Good luck.

 

There is nothing wrong with the crank, the engine needs more crankcase ventilation besides the factory setup, I know exactly why it did it.

 

You still pulling?

 

I was joking.

Either way, you'd need to detonate some C4 in my crank case to push the rubber past my wear ring. It's a completely different kind of seal.