Well , today I finished off the TBI , mounted the bracket and the cable.I now have pedal controlled throttle <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> I also talked to my mechanic , hes great to me.He said because of the oil having a gas smell , that it was possible that the oil was so badly contamintaed and thinned out that it was leaking out because of that.So , I drained the oil , and sure enough , it was more gas then oil <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> I fired up the truck a couple of times , and no leak yet , so I have my fingers crossed that is what it was.I need to let the truck run a little longer to make sure thats what it was and it still isn't leaking.

I have to get my electric fan mounted in the shroud yet and put into the truck.I also found out why my belt was squealing.There is a tiny pin hole in my rad <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" /> and it was spurting on my belt.I will have a rad shop fix that up for me seeing as its a brand new rad.Its hardly even marked up where the leak is , its actualy worse in another spot , and no leak there.So once the fan is in , and I bleed the brakes , shes good to go.

Oh , I also found out why the steering wheel went nuts and tried to rip my hand off <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I had the lines to the steering box backwards.So , I put the lines in the right spot , and no more steering wheel going nuts on me. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Well , pretty much all my work was wasted <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> I tracked down the oil leak , its hard to tell for sure if its the rear seal , or the U-shaped part of the oil pan gasket.But thats where its coming from.I talked to my mechanic , and according to the rate guides , to redo the oil pan gasket is 11.5 hours , and the rear main seal is 9.5 hours.At 85 an hour , its pretty costly.As for me , I don't have the resources to start tearing down the whole truck again.It seems the tranny has to be dropped , and the engine has to come out.I probably could do it myself , but I'd say at least amonth with me doing it.Not to mention I'm burnt out and need a break badly from all this.So , I guess the truck is gonna be sitting for a while.So close to , its running pretty good , warm idle of 700 RPM , and I hadn't even touched anything.This leak is too bad to ignore though.A couple hours of driving and it would be down at least a quart.

Awww man, that blows (pun intended). I'm sorry to hear it and hope you manage to find the time to get it fixed when your enthusiasm comes back. I wish I could tell you of some super shortcut but don't know that engine/trans combo.

Yeah that really does suck, I've been reading along as you've been working along. Good luck.

Chris

Well , decided to take the truck in to my mechanic and let him do a few tests to see if he can find the source of the leak.I took off the front corssmember to give a little more room by the oil pan , and also took the inspection plate off the tranny.I'll be driving it over on thursday , in true redneck style , which I took it for a quick burn around the block today <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />There is no front fenders or hood on it , and it still has the open headers , so when the throttle is down , its LOUD <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/nana.gif" alt="" />

Anyway , I got the brakes semi working.For some reason the back brakes will not get fluid to them.It goes out of the master cylinder , through the proportioning valve , but nothing comes out no matter how many times I pump the brakes with the speed bleeders open at the back.The fluid in the master doesn't go down at all.So , I got the front brakes working , which will do to get me there.Its only 3 blocks away , and there are no hills , and only one stop on the way , unless I get lucky and hit a green light.

When I took the truck for a spin around the block(its insured of course) it drives great , lots of power.When I got back and parked it , the leak was there of course.Also , if I looked down the road , you could see little spots of where it leaked while it was moving , nothing major , a drop here and there.Not a drop leaks untill its running.I will have to adjust the shifter still , which I knew I pretty much had to as D=N right now , and R is just above where it is supposed to be.Other than that , it starts first crank , and idles around the 700 mark when warm , about 1200-1300 cold start.

Hopefully when the mechanic looks at it closely , it will be something simple to fix , that I can't track down due to lack of visual space.He has the dye test , mirrors , a tube with a camera on it that can go pretty much anywhere , plus a hoise to get everything right at eye level instead of being crouched underneath like a contortionist trying to peek between the bellhousing and engine block.Thats the area its coming from for sure , the back end of the engine.Its hard to say if its the oil pan gasket , rear seal , or even possibly the dizzy.I have no idea if oil could come out of a head gasket? or not , but I didn't see anything from the side.That rules out the sides of the valve covers also , but its possible the rears don't seat properly.

So , all I can do is hope for the best , but of course be ready for the worst.He is going to do my alignment while its there also , and try to find out why my back brakes are getting no fluid.He mentioned something about a valve that can shut it off in case of a leak so only the fronts work.

Anyway , thats the latest update so far.Oh , I started to put in my power windows and locks , got one door pretty much done.Once the truck is done , then the muffler shop gets to do his thing with the Y-pipe.

Now that you mention that ... It reminds me of when I put mine together. Had a similar problem. Had an oil leak when it was running, but not when it was sitting still. In my case, the distributor wasn't pushed down and seated quite all the way. It was in there enough for it to run just fine, but not seated all the way so that it could seal. Check that and make sure that it's sitting all the way down like it should be. I'd almost be willing to put money on that being the source. In my case, you could actually see the oil where it was pooling around the hole back there too.

One last thing ... it did have that o-ring on the distributor when you put it back in, right??? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Richard <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

Yup , when I got the new dizzy I put a new O-ring on it.My mechanic is good , so he should find the cause right away.I couldn't see any oil at the top of the engine looking down when I was trying to find the leak.

I couldn't see it at first either. It took the right amount of wiggling to get the right angle to see it. And it wasn't like a huge puddle of it or anything. It was just a little pool of it, probably less than an ounce of it. Very little. Then I started feeling around back there since I knew that it had to be from back there and that's when I felt the bottom of the distributor where it seats into the engine. You could feel the gap that was there. It wasn't that large of a gap (again, it was seated enough to where it would still run) but it was just barely large enough that the o-ring wasn't in the right place for it to do it's job of sealing.

Richard <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

Drove the truck over to the mechanics today in redneck style <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />Had a few looks with the noise from the headers , then a second look when they saw the no hood and no fenders.They will be looking at it first thing monday morning with the dye and the mirrors and camera setup to see where the oil is leaking from.I noticed a huge power difference between the 2.8 and 3.4 , I actualy spun my 33" tires <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/nana.gif" alt="" /> With the 2.8 I could only spin the 235/75/15 on wet or slippery roads ,and that was really trying hard.Can't wait to get it all checked out , the alignment done and the exhaust fixed up so I can go play <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Well , just talked to the mechanic , it wasn't anything major in terms of repair , but they did have to pull the tranny.Its also something I don't think I would have ever figured out by myself.It seems the rear seal gasket has rings on it , but the part that holds the gasket down also has that ring on it.The stock gasket doesn't have the rings on it.Soooo , when I tightened it down to spec , there was twice the gap that there should have been.With both parts having the ring , it didn't seal properly.He said everything I did was perfect , no leaks , other than the extra spacing that shouldn't have been there.

Oh well , at least now I know what the problem was.I think I would have drove myself nuts looking for this problem , and most likely would have changed the seal and probably the pan gasket to try and stop the leak.But , after puttingit back together would have ended up with the same problem.So , for the fix , they are putting in a gasket with no rings.They didn't have to pull the tranny all the way out either , just far enough to get in there.