VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 rear main seal

I had installed that darn graphtite seal in the rear main of my 54 convert when I rebuilt the engine,all was fine for a short period of time then it started to leak.I pulled the pan and removed rear main cap and found that the crank had grabbed that "soft" seal and pulled it leaving a gap at the other end of the seal.I'm speaking about the upper half of the seal,I tried to pull a new seal in but to no avail I had to use that neoprene seal in the upper part of the rear main and it slowed the leak.I drilled and pinned the lower seal in and I would do the same for the upper part if I ever rebuild a engine again using the original rope type seal.I measured the main clearance at the rear main it is two and one half thousands which is good,I don"t reccomend using that new type seal stick with the factory type or you might have the same problem,comments are welcome,thanks Frank.

Sorry to hear of your problem. Of all the rope type seals the graphite is still the best but sxxt happens.
The neoprene seal does not work in a 1954 or older as it was designed for 1955 and up engines due to the seal grove being more shallow.
What I did on my 1950 is place a nylon wire tie behind the neoprene seal to bring it out farther so the lip would contact the crank shaft, Did this over 10 years ago with no leaks,

THANKS GENE GOOD IDEA BUT I'M GETTING UP THERE IN AGE AND NOT LYING UNDER THE CAR AGAIN.I STILL THINK THE GRAPHTITE SEAL IS GARBAGE IT IS SOFT AND UNSTABLE UNLIKE THE ORIGINAL ROPE SEAL.FROM MY EXPERIENCE I WOULD RECOMMEND USING THE ORIGINAL ROPE TYPE SEAL AND PINNING THE BLOCK AND LOWER CAP TO HOLD IT IN PLACE,IT AIN'T GOING TO MOVE EVER! Frank.

I know the feeling and I am past that age.

I have two 216s and I have used the Best seal on both. I couldn’t get a good result until all the clearances were around .0015 “. They both don’t leak.