Need Help With 51 F1 Rope Seal Replacement

O

oldf1guy

Junior Member
Just dropped the oil pan on my 51 F1. Had new pan gasket and lower rope seals. The short fat one must be for the front, I thought. It was leaking at the rear not at the front! To my suprize the front seal was a two piece rubber thing with a large bed of blue silicone in the oil pan track. The bottom half of the rubber was all but gone! (Still did not leak!) Being a nubie I thought what the heck I will use the short fat piece of rope in the front on the bottom and I might get lucky, since it did not leak to start with. I soon found this to be a pipe dream, because with the short fat rope soaked in oil overnight and placed in the front oil pan track the oil pan was way to far from the bottom of the motor no matter how hard I pushed on it. This made me think has something in the front been changed? Because there is no way IMO that this rope would work because there is only a small track that the old rubber and silicone rode in. I have been doing some research and heard of something called a lip seal for the front, but it seems to be a one piece deal. What was in my truck was definately 2 pieces. Doesen't matter because I can't find one for a 51. I could really use some help because my truck is sitting in the garage on jack stands instead of hauling me down the road!
 
I am familiar with two different types of seal modifications that are currently available. One uses a CNC aluminum ring that houses a seal and an o-ring and the other is a rubber one piece lip seal. The one piece lip seal comes with a smooth slip ring replacement for the spiral grooved slip ring that was original equipment on the crank shaft. As far as I know, neither mod requires modification of the pan but the crank pulley and the front timing cover have to be removed to install these. I don't recollect ay other seals at least back to the late 60s when I first started working on the old flat motors. You never know what kind of shade tree mods may have been done though. I've found more than one leather shoe tongue cut to fit a model A main bearing cap. The current "Best" brand gasket sets come with the short fat rope seal you mentioned. They are usually white in color with a black o-ring in the middle. Most of the old maintenance manuals say you don't have to cut them but many are too long to fit properly and must be trimmed to work. I just cut them a little above the gasket surface so the will compact just a bit. If the pan lip won't fit the old rope seal at all then someone must have modified it to fit something else.

Is your pan the type with the round clean out on the bottom?

Kerby
 
Kerby, No it doesn't have a clean out just a drain plug. I talked to a member of the East Coast Flathead Racing Association today that I met a few weeks ago. He told me to take a large socket with an extension on it and a hammer, and seat the front and rear rope seals in the oil pan after soaking them in oil for a couple of hours. Leave the ends of the rope a little long and notch the cork gasket to fit around them. I asked him if I could seat them to much and he lust laughed and said not to worry that the seal was so much bigger that that would not happen. He also said to use some silicone on the ends of the new rope. Does this sound right to you? The newer seals sound like a good thing but I am on a fixed income and the ropes are cheap and I hope they will work without having to pull the motor.
 
I believe the ECFRA member gave you sound advice. Silicon seal sure won't hurt the assembly a bit. The stuff will even stick to an oily surface as long as you rub as much of the oil off the parting surface of the rope seal as you can with a rag & some alchohol or clean solvent of some sort. You won't need but just a bit anyway.

Kerby
 
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