Rear main leaks are a domestic automobile trademark, and have been for 40+ years. My '86 Grand Marquis has had one since we bought it 16 years ago, and the '00 Jimmy I parted out started leaking around 120k miles. Usually they don't leak bad enough to warrant going through the trouble of yanking the transmission - it's just an annoyance seeing that spot where you parked. We've just been adding a quart every 1k miles to the Marquis for 16 years. With 260k on the clock, there's no point yanking the tranny just to do that.

When I threw the Jimmy engine in the '89 S10 Blazer, I ended up pulling the engine a second time a year later due to leaks out the oil pan, rear of the head gasket, and rear main. Lesson learned there - when you have the engine out, do EVERY gasket THEN!

 

Oh I learned that lesson years ago after rebuilding a 22RE in my 91 Toyota. Got the motor looking beautiful, dropped it back in, running great! Only to have the input shaft seal on the manual trans start PUKING 2 weeks later... Was literally looking at the seal 2 weeks prior dropping the motor down into the truck... So I had to crawl underneath and drop that mammoth transmission and transfercase assembly and replace the stupid thing...



Got some work done with the Blazer today. Road through town looking like I was starting my own off road tire business lol

Took a set of wheels and tires to get dismounted and some other tires mounted on the wheels. Dressing up momma's truck for a late Christmas present

 

Not just today, but over the last couple of days, I replaced the timing cover, timing chain, crankshaft position sensor, harmonic balancer, water pump, hoses, and coolant. Now I need to find a friend with a Tech 2 scanner to do the relearn thing. In the meantime, it still seems to run fine.

 

She brought me back home from the road trip! Acton ontario to boone North Carolina. No problems so far... other then part of my muffle fell off... but that's waiting until summer to be fixed...

 

Finally got the repaired heater core back in. By now I'm able to do this within 45 minutes

 

parked inside a couple odf days ago to clean out trans oil pan,,,this fell off just sitting there rear left,body mount

 

Rust makes me cry.

Even here in north Idaho the highway department has started to use road salt for the first time in anyone's memory. I think IDT has gone off its rocker but more than likely in my penny-pinching state, they think it is likely less expensive to clear the roads with it. Of course that money savings comes at the cost of how long our cars will last. Fortunately they don't salt the roads any where near to the degree they do in the mid-west. When I first moved to northern Indiana I was shocked at how much rust I saw. Coming the Pacific Northwest, I had never heard of salting the roads.

 

Start oiling down the truck's undercarriage with anything you can - used motor oil, Krown, Fluid Film, etc.. Only way you can delay the inevitable ...

 

I just changed out my fuel pump. Dropped the tank cleaned everything, and used Fluid Film on it and underneath, everywhere.
I had never heard of it until my brother told me. He apparently sprays his vehicle's frames down once a year with it.
I would definitely advise using it whenever possible.
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My Blazer does that itself