hoot

I am quickly coming to the conclusion that the gear case is leaking. As you can see in this drawing the oil is coming from above. I did a big maintenance stint this Saturday. Replaced the water pump, belt, hoses, coolant and dif fluids. While I had the air cleaner off and the water pump out I removed the alternator. No sign of a leak. It only leaks when it's running. I cleaned everything up with alcohol and put RTV along the edge of the gear case. This morning since it didn't run it was dry as a bone. I drove to work, climbed under and low and behold, oil running in the corner of the alternator bracket and gear cover. It seams the gear cover is leaking up high on the left side only when the engine is running. I did torque those bolts a little more but it didn't help.

Next step... Remove air cleaner, remove alternator, remove water pump. Clean up with solvent and RTV the joint. I'm using Permatex gear oil RTV. The stuff really grabs.

Maybe some day I'll do it right id this doesn't buy some time. Too big of a job for this level of a leak.

The second photo is a picture from another site. I believe the leak is from the area of the gear case where the oil pump is.

hoot

So today I took the fan mount off the front of the engine to see what's going on up there. Looks like a piece of the "gear case to block gasket" is missing. How in the heck can that be? Did it happen during assembly?

Fortunately it's up high and I think it's only oil splash from the gears spinning, slinging the oil through that gap. That's why I think the RTV on the outside worked for hbowers so I did the same. No pressure.

To clean it up, I sprayed it with brake cleaner. It looked like brake cleaner was going down into the gap where the gasket is missing.

Anyway... job is done. Sure hope it works as this leak has been haunting me for years.


Here is what I saw as soon as I removed the fan mount. Fresh oil.





Here is the missing gasket in plain site.





Gunked up with Permatex..

06RAM2500

What I thought was a front crank seal, turned out to be under torqued oil pan bolts. Retorqued them to spec, and no more leak.

hoot

Leak is fixed!