Year: 1995
Make: Ford F-350 Crew Cab 7.3 Powerstroke Diesel
Mileage: 295,400
Issue: Sudden Onset of a Severe Oil Leak
On our last camping trip, I noticed some oil spots on the back of the camper. I found a leak that was appearing at the bottom/back of the oil pan that was dripping one or two drops per second, but only when the truck was hot and running. It didn’t leak when parked or when driven on short trips.
I started by checking the usual suspects: Oil leaks from the HPOP (high pressure oil pump) items in the valley and the turbocharger’s oil seals. These leaks can run down the weep hole at the back passenger side of the valley in the center of the engine’s “V”, but everything was dry.
I checked the oil galley plugs at the back of cylinder heads, but these were dry as well. I was down to what I suspected was either an oil pan gasket or rear main seal leak. I was not looking forward to pulling either the engine or transmission to repair one of these.
Diagnosis: Hole in Oil Pan From Clutch/Flywheel Inspection Cover
I drove the truck about 20 miles to warm it up. Sure enough, it was dripping several drops per second. I carefully inspected the pan and rear main seal areas, but couldn’t definitively tell where the leak was coming from. I pulled the flywheel inspection cover and could see a leak where oil was visibly running down the back of the pan, but it didn’t look like either the pan gasket or rear main seal.
I cleaned everything up, restarted the truck and looked again (making sure not to get anything caught in the spinning flywheel of death). The rear main looked dry as did the oil pan gasket. The oil was appearing to ooze out of an area of the oil pan near where the flywheel inspection cover lip was contacting the oil pan. I cleaned it up again, and sure enough, the inspection cover had worn a hole in the oil pan. You can see the area in the picture below:
In the videos you can see where the oil emerges from the pan where the flywheel cover came into contact with it and runs down the back of the pan to drip off the bottom.
I found a Ford TSB (technical service bulletin) Ford #95-14-12 where this issue is described. 1994-1995 Powerstroke 7.3 engines are affected by this. Ford released an updated flywheel cover, Ford part # F5TZ-7007-AD to resolve this.
The Planned Cheap Fix: Seal the Pan
The “official” fix from Ford is to replace the oil pan and install the updated flywheel cover. This is not a good options for me right now. Other than a small external head gasket leak near the oil cooler (it’s not the oil cooler–that’s already been rebuilt with new o-rings), the engine is in excellent shape and I’d prefer to avoid pulling it out to replace the pan. I’d rather wait for a “real” reason to dig in that far…
My plan is to attempt to seal the pan and cut off the offending lip on the flywheel cover. I’m researching the best sealant. JB Weld and Quicksteel are contenders for their temperature range and resistance to diesel and oil. I’m going to wire brush the area on the pan, sand, and clean it with brake cleaner prior to putting on the sealant. Once cured, the sealant will be followed by a paint/sealant like POR-15.
Update
It’s been almost 3 years and 10,000 miles since I tried the repair proposed above and everything is still holding solid.