My 501 ate a crank oil seal at Cadwell. Anyone seen this before? some details:
Engine rebuilt in 2007/8, new seals throughout (obviously)around 4000km covered since.
Engine is a late 501 with the alternator side roller bearing modification.
The crank oil seal face is completely detached from the rest of the seal.
There are radial cracks inward from what I think is the seal lip edge (a bit hard to tell on the mangled strip which is left) which look like the rubber has perished and cracked, but the rubber feels supple still so this could be secondary damage I suppose
I cant feel any play in the crank bearings.
I had a look at my spare 501 motor (also with roller bearing conversion) to get the oil seal code, and discovered that this seal also shows signs of damage. There is a clear witness mark around the seal face, and has split all the way through around 1/3 of the way around (see photo below- this is the seal from my spare motor, but the failure mode I suspect is the same as happened at Cadwell).
Maybe the dished washer behind the timing belt could have been rubbing on the seal, but how? Crank axial expansion in the roller bearing pushing the seal against the lower pulley/dished washer?
I'm reluctant to replace the seal blindly if this is going to keep happening- it's not the sort of job I want to add to 'service items' Has anyone else experienced this, particularly on engines which have had the timing side roller bearing modification?
And while we're at it, can someone tell me the correct code for the crank oil seal, as both of mine are damaged beyond reading. In fact, I might replace all of the external seals just in case- if anyone has a complete list of the codes that'd be handy!
