Rear Main Seal Leak

[cycleguy55]

I dropped the pan, partially to replace the leaking rear main seal, the remainder to install my new Armando's oil pan. I discovered two interesting things when I looked at the rear main bearing cap: 1) there was a half section of a rear main seal (Ford part # - perhaps the original one) laying loose in the slot between the bearing and the seal groove; and 2) the upper portion of the Fel-Pro seal was installed backwards - with the lip facing out, rather than in. The half section in the bearing cap was installed correctly, however.

Whoever replaced the original seal must have been in a big hurry, oblivious or just sloppy.

Also, I realize the oil pan bolts are only torqued to 15 ft. lbs., but they seemed looser than that, and the rear main bearing bolts were suspiciously easy to remove as well - perhaps they didn't get the last pass when torquing in thirds.