Oil bypassing crank seal

[skycrew]

Hi all,
I have an 1835 that’s leaking a lot of oil from the crankshaft seal. I know nothing about VW engines, but I have a feeling I’m about to get intimate. Just wondering, before I pull my engine and split the cases to replace the oil slinger.. any wisdom on other potential causes? I’ve attached a pic of the K&N breather filter. Does anyone have this arrangement?

 

[Chucker]

The oil slinger is a pretty crude instrument. If it is installed in the correct orientation, I'm not aware of anything that can go wrong. However, if your breather is too restrictive, it is likely that positive pressure in the crankcase is forcing oil past the slinger. Before anything else, I would try running her without any restrictions on the breather.

 

[soneraifred]

I agree with Chucker. If the slinger is installed, changing it out is not going to fix the problem. On the 2180 in my IIL, I ran a 3/4” hose from the breather box on the top of the engine to the oil separator, and a 3/4” aluminum tube from the separator to the bottom of the firewall to provide a minimal breather restriction, and no oil leaking around the prop hub.

 

[Pops]

I also agree with Chucker. Turn the breather box 180 degrees and run a 3/4" tube to the rear of the engine and to a low pressure area if you can find one. I did what VW did on the Beetle, I ran the breather tube to the airbox in from of the carb intake. No front seal leaks after doing that.
In the picture the dia of the breather tube should be larger. Also 1835 engine.
In the picture, the blue hose in front of the carb.

 

[lumiere027]

Hello,
If your leak is that important to your crankshaft seal, it is because it is HS (worn) and changing what you want or not on the breather will unfortunately not change anything in your business! The advice that has been given to you is exact but, for a leak of small importance and, according to what you tell us, it flows a lot therefore, not much hope in my opinion! But do the manipulation on the breather and its pipe anyway and you will see ...
I follow my third VW (2 1835cc and 1600cc) and, I went on a RevMaster R-2100D on my new machine (A Sonerai 2) from 1987 which only has 1:00 p.m. of operation and, a good assée story that I will tell you later ... Good luck!
Christian

 

[skycrew]

Excellent feed back, thanks guys. I’ll head out today and try running a tube

 

[skycrew]

Engine pull averted! I did as suggested and removed any restriction, and the leak went away. The other thing I did was to re-orient the metal baffle under the breather block, I had it in wrong. Thanks again to all, now I can resume pilot/plane shakedown.

 

[johnbouyea1]

Engine pull averted! I did as suggested and removed any restriction, and the leak went away. The other thing I did was to re-orient the metal baffle under the breather block, I had it in wrong. Thanks again to all, now I can resume pilot/plane shakedown.

Well done. Can you explain the metal baffle plate correction you made? Was it louvers up to down or rotating it? Thanks!

 

[John B]

This is how they should go. Has to do with rotation of the crank and which way the oil is slung by the slinger.

 

[skycrew]

This is how they should go. Has to do with rotation of the crank and which way the oil is slung by the slinger.

100% JB! I had mine all kinds of wrong. Put it in right as shown in the pic you posted, removed the filter that was on it, then did a nice long, full power static run-up. Zero oil leaks.

 

[skycrew]

Well done. Can you explain the metal baffle plate correction you made? Was it louvers up to down or rotating it? Thanks!

Hi John, it was both. I had lovers convex side up, venting aft. See pic above for correct orientation.