4 miles of gently driving at 65mph:


Another 4 miles of the same:


8 miles and I floored it a couple of times:


This is my F350. I should get this fixed instead of driving 1,600 miles towing the boat back to Florida and then getting it fixed, correct? We are heading back tomorrow with two vehicles. I could leave the truck at the Ford dealer up here and come back for it and the boat later.

I towed the boat up and there was oil spatter on the boat, but the oil level was still good. I drove back and towed the jet skis up, oil spatter again and down a quart.

I replaced the oil separator yesterday. This morning I cleaned everything up with Gunk engine cleaner as best I could, hosed it off, let it dry, drove it, and took these pictures.

I can’t see any oil coming from anywhere else on the engine, but I’m also laying on my back under the truck.

Edited to add we plan to head back tomorrow.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

Not a mechanic but I think the answer is yes to the first question. On the second it depends. That will be expensive no doubt and might need to include more repairs and more $ to the job. How old and how many miles?

2015 and 186,000 miles. It’ll be cheaper to fix than buy a new truck.

Have you changed you oil since it started leaking?

Reason I ask is I have a Ford Ranger V6/automatic I bought new in 07 which to this day only has 50,000 miles.

Never pulled a trailer. Well 4-5 years ago one of our grandsons was staying with us and his pos dakota broke down coming into our security gates.
Grabbed a chain and the ranger and pulled him about a half mile to our house. Had told him to keep tension on the chain which i think he did by braking as hard as he could. Since he had never been pulled before and it was so close i just went on.

Well my oil was about to need changing but not over due and the rear main started pouring oil out. Since it was due an oil change I went ahead and gave it a shot at changing the oil and guess what. It stopped leaking oil and has never leaked a drop since in the 4-5 years and probably 10-15,000 miles since.

Don’t ask my why but all i know is i didn’t have to pull the transmission or replace the rear main seal.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
2015 and 186,000 miles. It’ll be cheaper to fix than buy a new truck.

agreed, but another option is to limp along with it depending on how much you depend on a 12 year old truck with approaching 200k on the clock vs how much it will cost to fix.

I am not saying it is not worth it, but what if the repair estimate is $4k-5k? Then what? Is it worth investing that kind of $ in it?

I changed it before heading back to Florida the last time, so it was down a quart in 3,200 miles.

We're not putting nearly the miles we were, but I still need a truck. Never seen snow and is just about as clean underneath as it is up top:

What power plant does it have?

Check crank case ventilation and might try heavier wt oil.

Google your year motor and trans and see what pops up.

I would try the easy before paying to replace the seal.

Ford calls the CCV an oil separator which I replaced yesterday.

I’m going to walk over to the garage and see what weight I used the last time. Either Rotella T-6 5w-40 or 15w-40. The oil change before that I used Motorcraft 10W-30 for the first time. Switching back was me trying a heavier weight oil. Not sure if I should risk the 1,600 mile trip again with the boat. Going back empty the last time seemed fine and bringing the jet skis up seemed ok as well, except for the missing quart.

It’s the 6.7 diesel.

Thats all i got. Good luck!

Thank you, I appreciate the suggestions. The T-6 5w-40 shears to 30 fairly quickly, so if that’s what I used, I’ll change to more stable oil if I risk the trip again.

If the CCV system was not functioning properly, high crankcase pressures 'can' (and will eventually!) force oil out through the weak(est) seals. It's certainly possible the main seal is leaking, but if the leak is CCV System related, I'd expect other/weaker seals to fail/leak first. Any chance there's an inspection cover on the front of the trans/bell housing you can remove to take a look?

Excess crankcase pressure can cause oil pressure in the pan to exceed normal levels. It can escape past the rear main seal.

Check cylinder pressure to see if it is above lower limits.

If not, your ring to bore seal is likely compromised.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Any chance there's an inspection cover on the front of the trans/bell housing you can remove to take a look?

Not that I can see. I’m thinking about taking out the two lowest bolts and see if oil comes out of the lowest part of the bell housing.

And I apologize for not mentioning it in my first post, but the plan is to head back tomorrow, so there’s a limit on what I can do. The decision at the moment is if we take both vehicles back or just one.

Assuming there's a Torque Converter, I'd imagine the would be some provision (removable cover/plug?) to access the bolts so it can be unbolted from the Flywheel/Flexplate. Otherwise, I'd imagine you'd need to remove the Engine & Transmission as an assembly to service it, no?

This is the bell housing showing the two lowest bolts that I’m thinking of removing to see if any oil comes out between the bell housing and engine:



Yes, the transmission can be unbolted from the engine, but you asked about an inspection plate and I don’t see one. The bolt at the upper right is the one in the first two pictures of my first post showing where the oil is coming from.

Perhaps removing the Starter would provide sufficient access? Got a bore-scope you could get in there?

Oil leaks can be tricky to diagnose, especially where space around the engine is tight. They can originate somewhere not even close to where you think they are. That said, I don't believe this is the rear main seal. If it were, the area circled in black would be coated instead of the trickle seen in the first pic. The biggest accumulation, circled in red, is too high up on the engine.



To the best of your knowledge, was it there before you changed the oil separator, or did it show up after? It might be residual. Some oil could have dribbled out and run down the side of the engine. If it was after, spray some brake cleaner in the area around your work, then look underneath and see where the brake cleaner runs down. If it follows that same path, you'll have diagnosed and fixed the leak at the same time.

The red circle is definitely the first place I saw the oil coming from after degreasing everything to the best of my ability. It’s also the only place I see oil coming from. Any oil in the black circle is coming from the red circle.

The oil separator is on the other side of the engine and like you said, there was some residual oil there before I degreased everything. I panicked for a second thinking I screwed up the o-ring. Since degreasing, that area is still clean.

That space is tight. I can see the starter motor, but there’s no way I can take it out before tomorrow.

Lots of potential places for oil leaks on the 6.7 Powerstroke...