Well, I haven't abandoned this thread...but it has been a week. At the rate I was going it sure feels like I've abandoned it!
I had a few days off from the car, while I was coaching, and have since just spent time enjoying the drive. There is much to be done still, and I have a couple of deadlines looming that require some fast hard work...but I figured for a few days I would enjoy it. At about the 500km mark I noticed I had a slight leak of oil out the front of the engine case. The cam seal always leaked on this engine, so I was less concerned then perhaps I should have been. At 700km I noticed a slight oil smell coming from the car when I stopped at a light, by 750km it was dripping oil consistently. Hmmm. Drove it back home (trailers are for wimps) and by the time I got there she was smoking oil off the muffler. Hard to see in this photo, but the 'fogginess' of the lower half of the photo is caused by oil smoke.
By now I knew that it wasn't the cam seal, but rather the flywheel seal. I have 5w40 all over the bottom of the car, or as I like to think of it "rust protection" :P Regardless, the motor needed to come out...so last night I popped it out. Took me two hours from the time I drove into the garage, which is long by bug standards but pretty short considering all the stuff I have to deal with. A good bit of that time was spent finding tools i have yet to put away properly!
Hmmm, yes, it would seem we've found the problem.
When I called my local parts store to see if they could get me a seal for the morning, she was surprised to find they not only stocked them...but she has sold one or two per year for the past few years. Doing some mental math, that pretty much sums up my engine pulls/flywheel seal sagas exactly. Thats when it hit me, I always install the first seal "flush with the case", and end up having a leak. I go back, put a new seal in to the step and it solves all my problems. Maybe this note will stay for next time?
All buttoned up by 12:30am and ready to go. I have a few other items I need to take care of while it's in the garage...but I could have driven it to work today if I wasn't working from home.
-Dave