Hi
Tried it and slowed down the leak dramatically, then welded up crank as Jeff suggested to make the diameter on the higher side of original spec. Still leaked and then re-installed fastfish seal with a Brand new Mancini retainer and that finally solved it. What a battle for an oil leak. Never seen anything like it. I must say Jeff spent the time talking to us and providing solutions and is really great at customer service. Top notch. Well worth dealing with him he will really try to find a solution. On a side note: At the Mopar shop I deal with they have seen an epidemic of oil leaks and we happened to come across an old NOS seal from the 70's and compared it to a new Fel Pro seal from today's kits. Well low and behold the one from the new Felpro kit was substantially thinner. Opened up 3 different seals and the same thing. Are these new Fel Pro seals changed? Have others seen a rise in oil leaks?
From Superformance a few years back on Moparts
I'll tell you EXACTLY what's going on
Yes, that's the ONLY seal we offer for the B and RB engines now.
Why? Because the largest and Best 2 piece O.E.M. seal manufacturer in the World stopped manufacturing ALL of their 2 piece rear main seals. Don't matter if it was for a Chevy, Ford, Cadillac, AMC or Mopar, they dropped their WHOLE line Cold Turkey, without warning!
The orange colored Viton was not a double lip, just a single and does nothing for sealing as it's only a contaminant (dust & dirt) exclusion lip.
The black seal you have is made from a Polyacrylate rubber. This seal is made in the Exact same mold as the Viton seal and is more than adequate to seal up your motor for the amount of time it's going to be together.
Am I happy about the discontinuation of these parts? Absolutely Not! I've personally sold MILLIONS of them.
Once the black Polyacrylate seals are gone from our inventory, they are gone for good. The previous time they stopped production I bought 10's of thousands of dollars worth of product. Anything I could get my hands on..... this time, not that lucky. I only ended up with 2,000 of them for the 273-340's and could off every single one of them tomorrow if I wanted.
There have been so many changes in the automotive industry the past 10 years it's almost worthy of a stroke. Most have no idea just how deep the root is that's been pulled out
So in closing if you are not happy with the seal you have now, return it and go buy the one in the Blue package.
Got an Email back from Fastfish
Hi Scott,
It can be installed on a engine stand or in the car. I am assuming you
will be trying to install one in a car? Per your questions the only
other thing you will have to do is loosen the main caps . If you are
installing one in a car this allow the back of the crank to drop down
enough to push the seal up and around the crankshaft. The seal or joint
can go at any location. I generally put it somewhere between 4 and 8
o'clock. The seal tends to grip the block and can be hard to rotate.
You can use a pair of needle nose pliers to grap outter edge of seal to
help help push it up and around. The seal comes with detailed
instructions. I have had a good bit of customers install the seal in a
car with good results. I have seals in stock and offer free shipping.
Thanks for your interest.
Jeff
www.fastfishautoparts.com