I've had a nasty oil leak from just below the water pump for a little while and just pulled off the pump to take a look. Here's what I found:

Front of engine (water pump off)

Closer look at the left side

Here's the back of the water pump

Here's a closeup of the water pump driveshaft seal

That WP driveshaft seal doesn't look right to me, but it's been ages since I saw it. Also, I don't see the o-rings for the driveshaft, but I can't really remember where they go.

Can I just pop that seal out with a small screwdriver?

Finally, what are the chances that my Opti is okay. Car was running great right to redline before I pulled it apart, but there was a lot of oil on the plug wires and opti vent tubes.

Thanks for any suggestions. It's been years since I tore down the front of an LT1 and I honestly can't remember much.

Thanks,
Rich

 

i had a pretty bad oil leak that was coming from the water pump drive. it gets a grove worn into it that makes it chew up the seal and leak.how many miles are on it?

 

actually.....the seal on your w/p driveshaft looks fine....notice the oil on top of the timing chain cover....looks like your intake gasket/seal is shot on the front, passenger side. just my .02 though. You can pull that thing out w/ a screwdriver, but if you're going to do that, Id just go ahead and order an electric w/p, and get a freeze plug for that driveshaft, or you could just leave the driveshaft in place, your choice.

Billy D.

EDIT: please excuse my ignorance above....I just looked a little closer at the driveshaft, and if that's not leaking, it will. but the oil above timing cover on passenger side still concerns me.

 

Put ALL seals in front cover and be done with it.It appears the crank seal is leaking and the balancer is like a fan and slings it all over. Look under at the oil pan and see if it has oil right below the crank seal.

 

Your w/p drive seal is obviously messed up.

 

crank seal we did my opti and just to be safe I looked at the front seal guess what no seal the seal should be gone thats why it leaking....

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to get a gear puller so I can remove the UD pulley and pull the opti to look behind it. There doesn't appear to be oil directly under the hub, so I was thinking that the crank seal was probably okay.

Car has 48K, but all of these seals were replaced about 5 years/20K miles ago when I did a head/cam swap.

 

It's cheap insurance to put them all in,instead of two and back together and next week it's still leaking. There is some tricks to going the opti and water pump as to not reverse the seal lip when inserting the drive shaft so pay close attention to that part or the lip on the seal will be turned backwards and won't seal.
Try putting the shaft in the new seal before installing and get the lip right then install the seal with the right size socket being careful not to knock the shaft out.I think if ya put them in from the back side of the seal with the seal in hand that works,but the old farts memory don't work right all the time-- I just do things as I get to them without a whole lot of thought or memory used.It just comes natural on this work after so many years.

 

It really looks like I need to pull and reseal the intake manifold...grrr. It's in good shape on the back, which is where I was really careful last time I installed it, but it looks like there is almost no RTV showing on the passenger's side front and there is oil caked all along the passenger side of the block -- more than could be coming from that WP DS seal alone. I'm not sure if that explains all of the oil, since I had it all over the front of the motor, including the coil, but I suppose that oil coming down from the intake could get sprayed around by the accessory belt and balancer. I hate tracking down oil leaks!