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1995 F250 PSD w/automatic: Investigated a minor oil leak
Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time going over my new-to-me 1995 F250 PSD (71,000 miles) looking for the source of a relatively minor oil leak. What I'm seeing is a drip coming from the inspection cover between the engine and transmission. It appeared to be coming down onto the starter mounting block, then down the edge of the inspection cover, then down the outside of the cover, finally dripping off of the weep hole (or whatever it's called). It smells like just oil..... not a mix of diesel/oil. The leak results in a spot on the ground overnight that is maybe 2"-3" in diameter. Not much, but I don't like leaks!
I looked all over the valley area, finding it very dry. No indication of anything having run out of the rear of the valley. Inspected the valve covers and found the gasket areas to be very clean/dry also. I went under the truck and saw that the starter was pretty grimy from the oil that had gotten on it. I removed the starter and cleaned it up. Then, I took the inspection cover off of the transmission. There was "some" oil inside the cover, but mostly a small collection of oil/dirt/grime. On the inside of the cover, it looks like a small drip has been coming from the rear main seal area, but it didn't seem to be wet with oil.... just a dry trace where I could tell it had leaked in the past. I inspected the inside of the bell housing and found it to be very clean; no indication of any slinging of oil. I did a lot of cleaning around the oil pan, starter mount, etc. Once it was clean, checked the oil pan bolts for tightness. They were pretty snug, couldn't get much more than maybe 1/8th of a turn more tightness on any of them. Then, I watched for awhile (engine not running) and could see a very small trace of oil coming from the passenger-side rear corner of the oil pan/block area. I looked as best as I could to see if there was any oil coming from anything above that entire area, but couldn't find anything. Otherwise, the only other thing I found was possibly a tiny weeping of oil around the fitting where the oil dip stick tube goes into the oil pan. Due to the caution I've seen in a video recently about making darned sure that the fitting doesn't get dropped into the inside of the oil pan, I might let my local Ford dealer replace that O-ring.
After all of this inspection, this appears to be the only area of concern on the entire truck.
I know this was pretty long-winded, but after giving all of this detail, do any of you guys have any experience with this area? Suggestions?
Last edited by nra1ifer; 01-01-2012 at 06:34 PM.
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01-01-2012, 05:46 PM
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