help me seal my engine
 

After another frustrating weekend of trying to finish up the miata after my engine build.... IT STILL LEAKS.

I pulled the motor this weekend cause I saw that the rear of the oil pan was leaking due the rubber seal being installed incorrectly. I re-sealed the entire oil pan, both coolant inlet and outlet (just in case) and saw that my cam seals were leaking so I pulled the belt off and re-installed the same seals.

Well I got it back up and running and went for a 15 minute drive and it turns out the engine is still leaking oil like crazy from the front. I yanked the front cover and valve cover off and found oil is still dripping from around the camshaft seals when I drive.

HOW ARE BRAND NEW SEALS LEAKING. they are installed correctly (fucking push them on). Any tips? Ideas? Am i missing something or does life just purely suck. The new engine runs great, but I cant drive it with oil pissing everywhere.

Thanks in advance.

If they have little enough press fit that you can put them in by hand I'd use silicone around the outsides...
Clean the seal bores with some brakeleen, get a couple new cam seals (just in case the lips are messed up somehow), put a little oil or grease inside the seal lips (you can burn them up if not prelubed a little), put some silicone around the outside perimeter of the seal and push it in place. Give it whatever time the silicone you're using wants for full setup, and fire it up.

The type of silicone you use isn't terribly important... I'll typically use the "Super Black" type stuff (we use a brand called "Right Stuff" at work) but even the regular clear stuff ought to work fine.

Spring towards the inside, correct? Make sure there aren't any nicks or scratches in the seal surface, it really needs to be very smooth, otherwise silicone or a new head would be needed. Are you sure it's the seals and not the end cap around it?

yeah the spring is towards the inside. I guess it wasnt really a very tight fit. I bought 2 new ones and I am also gunna use silicone.

I've used silicone on mine every time. I think the workshop manual called for silicone around these.

are you cam seals new? are they aligned properly under the cam caps? maybe you should remove the front two and make sure to clamp them down evenly over the new seals, then make sure to hit the corners with globs of silicone so the valve cover can seal.

Cam seals are the seals I struggle with the most. The only fix i've found is to use only OEM cam seals. Atleast thats how I fixed our integra's leaky seals. I still have leaky cam seals on my miata engine from when I built it :(

OR you could have scratched up and nick'd up the surface on the camshafts where the seals seal.

gl.

That's what I was going to say. Easy enough to do if you're not careful when pulling the old seals.

naw i pulled the seals off by hand when the cams were off the head. I dont think I did any damage, but i am going to inspect next time Im home. I did notice a groove in one of the cams(maybe both), IDK if thats stock or a wear pattern but they have been there, I also had it on my crank where my rear main seal sits.

Yeah, I bought a cheap seal puller from HF for that job just to be extra careful. Only used it that one time, but I figure it's a good investment for the long run.

shit still fucking leaks. Not horrible, but it leaks. I am assuming the cam seals and/or the main seal (both of which have been double and tripple checked) this time when i did the cam seals i even went as far as RTVing them (not my 1st choice).....and I let it sit for like 4 days before starting it. RTV black.

I just simply pushed these seals on. is there anything else to it? Tomorrow i will confirm that the seals are actually leaking when i pull the valve cover off.

Got to advance auto, buy oil dye, whip out a uv light, start car, use uv light to see where leak is coming from.

my question isnt where its coming from, that you can do by just looking and touching ... its how to get it to stop.