Rear Main Seal Longevity

[Keith Knight]

A friend was wrapping up a long cross country trip from eastern US to western US, round trip in his converted 2007 LMTV expedition vehicle. He had a major rear main seal failure, causing him to tow it home the last 150 miles or so.

Its got me thinking of what can we do to all of our main seals not just Engine to help preserve them and make them last longer.
My first thoughts are additives, but with so many choices I was wondering if anyone has good advise or real world success with an additive???

 

[GeneralDisorder]

NO. Additives are essentially all Snake Oil. You have no idea how they will react with the base oil and additive package. If it's not in the bottle of oil already DO NOT add it.

There's no such thing as mechanic in a can.

This is probably a result of multiple factors, but rear main seal failure is usually a result of either crankshaft thrust play, or oil contamination resulting in hard particles of carbon, varnish, dust, dirt, etc being wedged between the shaft and the seal and essentially turning the seal into a cutting tool. Thus why most of the time when replacing a shaft seal such as a front or rear main it is advisable to also install a shaft repair sleeve or at the very least set the seal such that it doesn't run on the portion of the shaft that already has a groove cut into it.

Good filtration (both oil AND air), and quality synthetic is your friend. Preferably with bypass filtration to pull out very small particles and soot.

My 2008 had a huge hole in the boot from the air filter to the pipe that runs to the turbo inlet. Just rubber rot from the desert. I could stick my finger through it. Improperly filtered air and dusty operating conditions are probably the worst thing you can do for engine longevity besides running it low on oil or not changing the oil. Making sure that the air filter is SEALED and the engine isn't pulling in "pirate" air from somewhere that's not filtered..... often overlooked.

 

[Ronmar]

Not running them at max governed for hours at a time may have an effect on longevity also

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Not running them at max governed for hours at a time may have an effect on longevity also

ECO hubs makes everything better. The birds chirp louder. The food tastes better. Even the women are more attractive.

Promise.

 

[Keith Knight]

He actually just installed echo hubs with original 3.90 gears before the trip.

 

[GeneralDisorder]

This is the kind of overlooked item that wears out engines and shaft seals in a hurry when you are bombing down dusty back roads and overland trails.

The original air filter to pipe boot on my 2008 A1R......

 

[Keith Knight]

Crappy eco friendly rubber, I had 60 year old rubber on my restored M38A1 that was still in almost perfect condition. I road it on 1951 tires with new tubes. But the tires were still flexible.

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Crappy eco friendly rubber, I had 60 year old rubber on my restored M38A1 that was still in almost perfect condition. I road it on 1951 tires with new tubes. But the tires were still flexible.

The former wetland (now superfund site) near the factory that made the M38A1 rubber still looks like the surface of the moon but hey that rubber is SUPPLE!