Quote:

Quote:

The problem is the knurling on the crank. I have all the Chinese cranks sent to my crank grinder for check and correct anyway. We discovered that a .006 cut on the rear main seal surface knocks down the high spots and provides a smoother working surface. ALL of the premium cranks (Callies, Crower, etc.do NOT use the knurling and they never give you any issues with leaks)..I always use the orange "Fluoroelastomer" seal. It is the highest quality available, as far as I know. No leaks...

MB



Mike I wonder if that knurling issue, you aren't the first to suggest this, will over time eat up the rope seal and cause a leak?

We used an eagle crank on the enginemasters build and had a weeping rear main seal, it used the orange lip seal.



I had an Eagle that absolutely kicked my asz. Anything I did-it leaked. That's when I took a hard look at that knurling. I used a jewelers loupe and looked at the way they cut that. Too many jagged "peaks". My theory was it was tearing up the seal. Since then, I have probably used over a dozen more Eagle's, machined the seal surface and never had a problem. I can only assume that "fixed" it. I also discovered a problem with the billet rear main seal caps. They "shroud" the rear main cap and don't allow the oil to drain back to the pan fast enough. I cut a relief in them to "unshroud" and assist drainage. Interestingly, the billet cap that Best Machine sells is real nice. It is made with a huge relief to really open it up. NEVER had any issues with those. I don't know who is making them for B/M, but they got it nailed.

As for the rope seal, I have no real experience, other than OE stuff years ago. I might be leary to use one on an aftermarket crank for precisely the reason you mention. Glad it worked for the OP, just



MB