[kwilford]

Seriously? I'd worry about the water pump long before I'd worry about the crankshaft seal. JM2CW
Harold

Thanks Harold, saved me calling BS....

Never in my 44 year year history of Opel'ing have I ever heard that a tight (or even over-tight) fan belt would cause a crank pulley leak. Gordo, some days your imagination is a magical thing...

 

[crcreasy1]

Thanks Harold, saved me calling BS....

Never in my 44 year year history of Opel'ing have I ever heard that a tight (or even over-tight) fan belt would cause a crank pulley leak. Gordo, some days your imagination is a magical thing...

Gordon,
Thanks for your help and advice. Ill check the belt tightness. Please continue to provide direction and advice based on your experience. Lord knows I need access to people that have lived with these cars for as many years as possible. I’m looking for trustworthy advice, without the concern of belittlement from not having automotive experience.

The only bad idea is the one not offered,

Chris

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Thanks Harold, saved me calling BS....
Gordo, some days your imagination is a magical thing...

You know, after numerous and frequent disparaging comments by you to me over the past 15 years PUBLICLY, which seems to be your moderating style, you have no idea how much I want to chew you out right now. But, as many of us have observed over the years, people that talk back to you get BANNED.

It's not BS and I can make that happen to any Opel right now. I have helped several people with this advice over the years. Gil will even acknowledge what I'm saying is true.

If you use a wrench or a pry bar or something to pry the alternator downwards to tighten a fan belt to keep it from squeaking, you CAN cause the pulley to skew to one side of the seal and the result is oil spray on your hood. I have done this at least 3 times in the 40 years I've been Opeling. Clean off the oil, relieve the tension on the belt, and the oil spray stops. Over tighten again and the oil spray comes back, loosen and it goes away again. I have seen this myself just as I described and I have given this advice to others and it fixed their problem.

Yes, Mr. BS'caller, if you way over tighten your fan belt it will eventually trash your water pump, but doing so can also cause oil spray on your hood. So, 2 bad things happen if you do that.

Your attitude towards things you've never experienced or heard of.......when it comes out of my mouth.......is appalling. But when RallyBob or someone you respect confirms it, you're suddenly silent with no apology for your demeaning "Gordo is a retarded clown" comments. Yes, this has happened a number of times over the years. I stay silent for fear of antagonizing the overlord. My patience is wearing thin.....

 

[hrcollinsjr]

All,

Good morning.

I need some advice and maybe leads. I had my 1970 Opel GT fully restored by a shop in Tennessee. (Body sandblasted, rusted metal removed, new metal welded in, rebuilt engine, full rewire, interior replaced and ...)( At a cost of $$$$), It took 20 months to complete and was delivered to me in North Carlonia, June 2021.

I’ve been fighting one problem after another. Here's a few repairs:

1. Cabin road noise. - Repaired with Kilmat install from luggage space to rear lighting. (More needed).

Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated.

Some tires are quieter than others. You may want to check tire reviews for road noise before your next tire purchase.

Harold

 

[crcreasy1]

Some tires are quieter than others. You may want to check tire reviews for road noise before your next tire purchase.

Harold

Harold,
Thanks for the note.

I didnt think of that. Let me go take a look.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[hrcollinsjr]

It's not BS and I can make that happen to any Opel right now. I have helped several people with this advice over the years. Gil will even acknowledge what I'm saying is true.

If you use a wrench or a pry bar or something to pry the alternator downwards to tighten a fan belt to keep it from squeaking, you CAN cause the pulley to skew to one side of the seal and the result is oil spray on your hood. I have done this at least 3 times in the 40 years I've been Opeling. Clean off the oil, relieve the tension on the belt, and the oil spray stops. Over tighten again and the oil spray comes back, loosen and it goes away again. I have seen this myself just as I described and I have given this advice to others and it fixed their problem.

My apologies Gordon as I am the one that inadvertently started it. I've NEVER seen anyone tighten a belt that tight before. I have known water pumps to go bad from the belt being overtightened or that's what I assumed happened to them when they failed shortly after being replaced. Pulley misalignment could be contributing to the squealing. I had one recently that was chewing belts up. I improved it but it's still not correct.

Harold

 

[kwilford]

My apologies as well Gordo. I didn't intend to "disparage" you, nor have I intended to in the past.

 

[crcreasy1]

FYI: I had a really pesky leak on my car, which is engine and tranny leak free, even though I have an auto. I would always have about 5 drops of oil under the car every day, even if I never drove or started it. It turned out that the vicinity of the oil pan drain plug must have gotten damaged at some point during a PO's ownership, although there was no evidence of this. I cleaned the engine and it was absolutely bone dry everywhere, yet there was a drip constantly forming near the drain plug. Of course, I put a new sealing ring and even a new plug in it, and yet every day there was a drip forming about 1" from the plug and a few drops on the sheet metal pan I put under the car. It turned out that the pan had been braised where a weep hole had formed due to damage. The braising was leaking. Installed a replacement pan and problem solved.

Gordon and Will I. Finish,

I checked both the cam button cover and water pump/alternator belt tension.

1. The cam button cover had oil buildup, which I cleaned. Is there a torque spec for it?
2. I loosened the belt and started the car to make sure it wasn’t squealing. I run it the next few days and check the hood for spray.

Thanks guys,

Chris

 

[kwschumm]

I haven’t tried to make the belts so tight that the crank seal leaks but, given the rigidity of the crank, if it does then I’d suspect main bearing clearance and/or a worn or out of spec seal. So many aftermarket parts are made in China then anything is possible.

 

[Will I. Finish]

No I haven't. I’ll take a look at that.

Thanks for the help,
Chris

Check that before you invest the time and energy on the dye. My engine was also rebuilt and I believe the builder just did not tighten that cam button cover up enough and exactly like you discribe there was a faint spray on the underside of the hood. Just an observation of something that happened to me. Oh and I had an oil leak at the bottom of the oil pump - everyone said that leak was coming from higher up - nope the builder also left off the gasket or actually sealer, on the oil pump cover, in the case of the 2.0 which caused a very slow leak. I added a gasket that was not what was needed and that dropped my oil pressure down to around one - with the sealer, I now have no leak and pressure close to 5. So much to learn so little time.......again good luck......Carl I just reread this thread and you said there was a build up around the cam button cover......I think you may be on to something.....

 

[crcreasy1]

Check that before you invest the time and energy on the dye. My engine was also rebuilt and I believe the builder just did not tighten that cam button cover up enough and exactly like you discribe there was a faint spray on the underside of the hood. Just an observation of something that happened to me. Oh and I had an oil leak at the bottom of the oil pump - everyone said that leak was coming from higher up - nope the builder also left off the gasket or actually sealer, on the oil pump cover, in the case of the 2.0 which caused a very slow leak. I added a gasket that was not what was needed and that dropped my oil pressure down to around one - with the sealer, I now have no leak and pressure close to 5. So much to learn so little time.......again good luck......Carl I just reread this thread and you said there was a build up around the cam button cover......I think you may be on to something.....

Will I. Finish,
Ok, I'll do that this weekend. How tight should a make the nuts?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Will I. Finish]

Will I. Finish,
Ok, I'll do that this weekend. How tight should a make the nuts?

Thanks,
Chris

Just tight enough before they snap off - Actually, just nice and tight I did not use a torque wrench I cleaned up all of the gunk around it and tightened the bolts.

 

[Will I. Finish]

So crcreasy1,
Keep us posted on your findings - and again good luck with your continuing efforts to get it all done and done correctly. In the event you don't know yet, that day most likely will never come, hence my name, Will I. Finish. It seem that there is always something to finish on a 50 year old car and mine just turned 50 for me this month as I purchased it when it was two years old in July of 1972. Anyway I still have a list of things to do - I use to say that I was not trying to have a perfect GT, well apparently I am, but again - Will I Finish......95% there but then age of the car will become a factor and ...... so you know....

 

[Will I. Finish]

And regarding your instrument panel crack - depending on how bad it is - mine cracked about 1 inch above the indicator lights. I used glue and a metal strip across the back and I would challange anyone to find the crack seriously it is not visable. The metal strip, or plastic strip, will help reinforce the plastic so when taking the instrument panel out in the future I feel pretty confident it will not happen again. I would recommend that anyone reinforse the panel in areas prone to cracking to reinforse the instrument panel now as there is no doubt that at some point in the future that panel is coming out again for one reason or another.

 

[bolbers]

Doesn’t it affect the cam end play clearance to button if one tightens the cover more? As I recall the procedure is to tighten cover then “adjust” the center cone inwards with a hammer and drift while checking clearance with a feeler gauge. I had to flatten mine out a bit first before doing this. If this seems like a clunky way to go about things, we’ll that’s probably why RallyBob (for example) is making adjustable covers with a bolt in the center.

Please note I’m not trying to make things more complicated for anybody here. Maybe it isn’t a big deal to snug it up a little bit but I’d like to hear what the experts say.

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

How tight should a make the nuts?

Same way any good mechanic does.

Tighten until you hear it crack, then look nervously around the room and back it off 1/4 turn.

dusts hands

And another job well done.

 

[Will I. Finish]

Doesn’t it affect the cam end play clearance to button if one tightens the cover more? As I recall the procedure is to tighten cover then “adjust” the center cone inwards with a hammer and drift while checking clearance with a feeler gauge. I had to flatten mine out a bit first before doing this. If this seems like a clunky way to go about things, we’ll that’s probably why RallyBob (for example) is making adjustable covers with a bolt in the center.

Please note I’m not trying to make things more complicated for anybody here. Maybe it isn’t a big deal to snug it up a little bit but I’d like to hear what the experts say.

Your point is way beyond my knowledge base. All I know is that my bolts were loose and I had a leak that sprayed the interior of the hood. Tightened them up no more leak. To your point hopefully someone with superior knowledge on the subject will comment.

 

[terrylewisac]

My apologies

WOW that's a first, for me at least, I never seen nor heard of this language from you sir! I'm impressed.
I knew you'd come around

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Keep in mind that I'm not saying I'm right and others are wrong, I'm just like everyone else, I'm just throwing ideas out. It remains for you to sort out the various suggestions and see which one or more works.

In my previous experience, I only got hood spray when I had the fan belt too tight, that's why I pursued that line of inquiry. But, I was talking with Charles Goin last night and he brought up a few other crank pulley related leaking issues that "could" be cause. This is not to say that all your leaking woes are confined to just up front, you may have multiple leaking locations and something up front is just one of them.

Charles brought up that you can get a pulley leak through the key way in the crank shaft. These cars are now 50 years old and a lot of us are using worn pulleys, cranks, bolts, washers, etc. Oil, under crank case pressure, can force it's way through the key way passage of the crank and the pulley and come out where the bolt holds the pulley to the crank. There's a big, thick, sometimes slightly domed washer under the bolt that often fits very snugly within the pulley.......or not. That washer can act to block oil from squirting out the key way. I recall previous discussions on this topic on this site where it was suggested to put some RTV on the key way/pulley/shaft/washer/bolt to stop this sort of leak from happening. Sometimes people don't tighten the crank pulley bolt tight enough and the washer makes a poor seal. If that bolt is loose, the pulley can become loose on the shaft and get skewed by the tension of the belt. All are possibilities, however unlikely they seem. With old cars weird stuff can happen. It's difficult to tighten that crankshaft bolt to the torque required and I have had a number of engines pass through my hands where that bolt was only hand tight.

This is all just info to ponder and pursue if needed. I've learned not to take any possibility off the table.

 

[crcreasy1]

Just tight enough before they snap off - Actually, just nice and tight I did not use a torque wrench I cleaned up all of the gunk around it and tightened the bolts.

Gordon and Will I Finish,
Last night I loosened the alternator belt more and tightened the cam button cover. The cover was surprisingly loose. I started the car and ran it without belt squeal.

Let’s see how she does now.
Chris