SAAB B235R Front Main Seal

[Fast_Ed]

Starting now.. Pics later..

[kevm14]

Done yet?

[Fast_Ed]

Well, today I did my front main seal. Had an oil leak on the passenger side and was hopeful that this was the issue.

Unfortunately, I don't think that was the case. There were some signs of oil leaks near the crank pulley, at least:

The crank pulley is juuuuust barely blocked by the unibody. Maybe due to lack of sag in the polyurethane engine mount?

(This pic is taken after the car is raised, wheel removed, plastic liner removed. )

Anyways, this is how this job works.

[Fast_Ed]

One nice thing about about owning a Viggen is always knowing the engine load bar is adjusted just. for. you.

(Headlight wipers have a mind of their own. This one was excited!)

I also happen to know the size for all these bolts.. 7mm and 10mm for the plastic liner.. 15mm for the two bolts between the engine mount and the unibody. 8mm allen key for the center bolt of the mount, though I didnt take that off for this one. Just loosened the two 15mm's enough to lower the engine the quarter inch that is needed for the crank pulley to clear the body.

A 1/2" drive breaker bar works great to release the tensioner. The strut bar does a great job of holding the bar in place if you do it right, as can be seen here.

Next we'll see the star of the show...

[Fast_Ed]

There she is.. the front main seal in all her orange glory.

Not the best pic, I admit, but I wanted to show off the custom tool I carefully adapted for the purpose of removing that giant 'C' clip.

Actually it's just a pair of brake spring pliers that I mangled in an intense session where I remembered how much I hate drum brakes.. After replacing them, I took the broken ones and straightened out the implements. Today I took a file and made some ridges on those 'implements' to avoid the 'C' clip from slipping off. This mod definitely saved me at least one purple finger today alone.

A pair of oil filter pliers does a pretty good job of wiggling this housing off. Dont rotate it much more than a degree or two.. There is a loose alignment pin in there. You're just working it free of the rubber seal here.

Now you can see the glint of the saab oil pump.. This thing would be my Arch Nemesis if that position hadn't already been taken by someone else.

This picture came out pleasantly evil looking. Very appropriate for this evil, sloppy horror.

[Fast_Ed]

Now for the stupid part. The depth of the Front Main Seal has to be the same as the old one. The current front main seal is from the used timing cover that I recently installed on the car.

Yes I knew better. But I still did it.

Who me? Of course I still have the old one:

The junkyard seal is at a depth of around 1.4mm. The Viggen's original seal averaged 0.7mm.

Maybe that's why there's so many rings on the crank pulley with which the seal mates:

One thing that I have never installed on the Roadmonster: Any part with an Umlaut on the label.

It's not a preference thing.. they just don't seem to have that, for some reason.

Installation takes this:

and a bunch of this:

Yes, this is what they actually suggest..

[Fast_Ed]

New seal was driven to an average of 0.8mm. Pretty close to the original seal.

I coated the oil pump with a liberal amount of assembly lube, installed a new O-ring on the housing, and inserted the housing and the big nasty C-clip.

I coated the sealing surface on the crank pulley with fresh oil and slid it into place.

Cranked down the pulley bolt, lined up the belts, and pulled the breaker bar free from the tensioner.

Disconnect the Direct Ignition (DI) cassette, and pull the fuel pump fuse. A couple of cranks brings up some oil pressure. Reconnect and replace the fuse. One more check of the serpentine belt.

Start her up and check for leaks. No leaks.. from the seal area.

But some pretty good leaks from the back of the head. Probably where the timing cover hits the head gasket. Some... unpleasantness... occurred there during the timing cover job.

I button her up by replacing the plastic cover and wheel. Kevin helps me lower the car.

I'm still gonna drive the damn thing. You'll just know where I've been.

Stay tuned for Episode 2: "The SAAB probably wants a head gasket..."

[kevm14]

Wait, so it's still leaking oil?

[Fast_Ed]

Yep, lots of it. Down the back of the engine between the timing cover (TC) and the head. I expected this based on the damage to the head gasket (HG) when I did the timing cover. The HG gets some anaerobic gasket maker at the TC end. This stuck to the TC when i removed it and the HG wrinkled. I was hoping out wouldn't leak. But it does.

Looks like everything is now cheaper for that job now though. Less than $100 in parts, including new head bolts.

I imagine i could do it in a day. For now, I'm gonna clean it up in there and apply some RTV to slow the leak. This car has to cover some miles before it gets another weekend of attention from me.

[kevm14]

Totally agree. I've never had a car that didn't leak oil. Even the CTS-V weeps on the garage floor every once in a while.