Im 90% sure this is a rear main leak and im just looking to verify. Ive noticed a small spot on the drive at work when i get ready to leave for a few months and im loosing about 1/4-1/2 quart of oil between changes. Today i took the truck down to the car wash and used the pressure washer to clean the bottom of the engine and tranny to see whats going on. Took the truck home and let it idle for about 10min or so and shut her off and waited a few hours. This is what i have. It is coming from inside the seam there, i check each side and the front of the engine and didnt feel or see any leaks except for here. Let me know what you think, thanks.

 

anyone have any suggestions? Im thinking it could be the oil pan leaking. going to pull one of the black plugs and see if i can see any oil coming from the rear main. Then im going to go around the oil pan and check the bolts to make sure they are tight.

 

Pop out those plugs. If the front of the flex plate isn't coated with oil, it isn't the rear main seal.

 

how exactly do you pull those plugs out? i tried grabbing hold of them and pulling and then tried twisting but nothing seems to work. Also i was able to get the truck higher off the ground (drove over a ditch and layed in it) and was able to get a good look around the engine.

It looks like the leak is coming from the oil pan seal. The entire edge of the pan is wet from one side to the other. Once im able to get these plugs out ill be able to verify if i have a rear main leak or not. Thanks for the help

 

They pull out. It takes some muscle though.

 

took the plug out, got my mag lite and looked up in there to see a dry flex plate. (that is if the flex plate is the big metal plate in the opening.) There was a little oil on a bolt that i saw but everything else looked pretty dry. Now umm how do i get these plugs back in? Lol, i gave up after about 30min of trying to push it back in. Heres some pics of area around the oil pan.

 

I would leave the plugs out until you are sure you got the leak fixed.

I think I put something into the hole in the middle of them to push them back up in. I also seem to remember coating them with oil before even trying.

 

any easy fix for oil pan leak? otherwise ill let it leak till i have to rebuild the motor, im only loosing about 1/2 quart after 4k miles.

 

Did you tighten up all of the bolts? If so, is it still leaking?

 

i tried tightening the bolts but i could only turn one of them about 1/4 of a turn. The rest of them were tight. I also pulled off the shiney cap on the tranny bell housing and it looks like there was oil coming out of it b/c inside of that cap was covered in oil. The flex plate is dry but the thing behind it (tc?) had a lil oil on it.

I took some more pics of it will have them uploaded in a bit. Also i went ahead and tried to put the plugs back in and i cannot get them to go in, and the center of one of them broke off..... Will it damage anything if i leave them out? Seems like it would let foreign objects into the bell housing. Thanks for the help.