Technical "BARS LEAKS" REAR MAIN SEAL REPAIR ... DOES IT WORK?

Hi, my 430 rear main has started weeping just a little and I wondered if many here have tried this? It seems to get good reviews and I wonder if anyone feels it's worth me trying to get one sent over to the UK and trying it out ? http://www.amazon.com/Bars-Leaks-1040-Repair-Concentrate/dp/B00754T6TK

 

Probably not but what do you have to lose? Gamble 5 pounds, if it doesn't work you are out 5 pounds, if it works you saved a major repair job.

You shouldn't have to send to the US. Your local motor factors should have the same thing or the equivalent made by an English firm.

 

Would you use a Band Aid to stop a heart attack?
Reseal it for christ sakes.

 

Hi. My thoughts on this is that as you must add it to your oil it will be flowing thru the entire engine. While doing this it is designed to build up around any leak & the leak is determined as oil flowing thru a tight place?? How many tight spots is oil sent thru in the normal operation of your engine. Could it clog passages to rings, bearings, lifters, etc???????

There is only just 1 safe way to stop an oil leak & that is to repair or replace the bad part. Do you really want to risk an engine failure or damage from crud added to your oil?

Good luck, Jimmie

 

This^^^^^^^^

 

Don't get your hopes up..... Replace the seal.

 

Surviving the weather? Got flotation devices for the '34?

 

Not bad down here, although the creek behind my property which is usually 3/4 feet wide, is now a small river 25 ft wide. How ya been doin?

 

All the Band Aids IE: Bars Leak etc are nuttin but an additive to swell the seal.May work for awhile but they will just start leaking soon enuf. Put a dam seal in it and be done with it.

 

yep , something some people might use to get a car sold, not a "fix", a temporary solution but there is no guaranty it will work in you car anyway

 

Unfortunately snake oil at best with temporary fix if at all. I'm sure they sell a lot of it for people wishing for a easy fix.

 

Doing good, pond is full and fish are very happy!

 

Gonna get my pole and I'll be there in 2 hrs.

 

I have had very good luck with bars leak with the pellets for the cooling system from a leaking head gasket to a intake gasket, I would be skeptical about the rear main seal but I would probably give it a shot and have higher hopes if its only what I would consider "weaping" but now if its "leaking" and covering the bottom of the car after a drive I wouldnt be as hopeful

I am also somewhat skeptical of quick fixes but I am also just as skeptical of advice to tear the whole car down to fix something that could be minor..........sometimes "fixing it rite" can cause more problems than what you had to begin with, with broken off bolts etc.etc.etc.

Many a project has fell prey to "fixing it rite" only to be abandoned after opening a unnecessary can of worms.

 

There's right and there's easy. They aren't the same. Do it right.

 

'Mechanic in a can'
I tried to download the technical data sheet on the Bars All web site but the link is broken.
The old mechanic in a can used Benzene. It softens the rubber and causes it to swell, stopping the leak at least for some time. It softens anything else rubber that it comes in contact with too.
A stop gap measure at best

 

Is it a "rope" seal?

If so, drop the pan and insert a steel shim in both halves to tighten it up.

The shim look's like a windshield wiper rubber's steel guide. I have/had a long plastic shim inserter that you put one in and then tapped it into the rope with another one and a small hammer. Worked fine but like noted, is a pain to do.

If it is rubber, don't know??

pdq67

 

Temporary fix at best. Like my old man said years ago "there's nothing in a can that's going to fix something".

 

lot of no answers on it working , i guess i will be the first yes. i put a bottle of it in the 350 chevy in my `28 tudor last year since it would leave a very small oil spot wherever i parked. now it is hardly noticeable.

i know there is a difference between easy and fixing it right...but the little i drive it and the fact i have gotten lazy and don't want to tear it apart i took the easy. just so you know , i rebuilt the motor in 1989

so far so good , if it's temporary and doesn't work i'm fine with it...and out 5 bucks. i will just let it dripped

 

pdq67 , I've never heard of this repair method - where can someone get more information ?

 

Well there's beer. Back in auto shop our teacher put a seal in a pickle jar full of stop leak and let it sit on his desk. Sucker swelled up twice its size.

 

mrbthebarber>>> has started weeping just a little >>>

Wait till it leaks a lot.

Jack E/NJ

 

Do you guys have any idea what it would cost to Re and Re a Lincoln 430 just to replace one seal? In England?

 

I'd bet quite a chunk of change . pdq67 asked a good question {is the seal rubber or rope ?} if rubber - products like the Bars Leaks might help but the rope seal wouldn't be affected by it .

 

What year 430? Somewhere in the early to mid sixties, cars started using neoprene seals. One way or another, the job is not as bad as thought. The pan is removable in the car. Might have to drop steering link. After that remove the rear main cap. Sometimes you can get away with replacing lower seal only. But if you want to replace the upper seal, you will have to loosen the remaining main bearing bolts to drop the crank enough to grab the seal and walk it out.
The new top seal can just be walked around the crank and then tighten the other main bearing bolts to bring the crank back up to crush the top seal. If rope seal, trim away the excess so that the seal is flush with mating surface. Apply sealer to mating surface per manual. Install rear main cap (with new lower seal) and torque main bearing bolts to spec. Replace pan and reinstall steering link. Done!

 

Still wont make a snake oil product work any better, no matter what it costs.

 

Any of that stuff bars or Rislone or Bardahl works on the premise that the seal has become hard and just needs softening up. If you are driving a car and the main seal starts weeping it is not because it has become hard it is because it has become worn. Always best to just replace the seal, even a rope seal isn't that hard if you get yourself a set of Chinese fingers and pull it through.

 

Well it worked for me in my 92' Ford 300 6l but that's got a neoprene seal, don't think the snake oil will do much for a rope seal and it would have worked even better if 3/4 of the leak wasn't from the side cover..Someone mentioned that engine oil for high milage engines has some snake oil in it

 

I had an OT Olds that leaked like that. I just lived with it and would top it off every now and then. One day I said what the heck and tried the stuff. Worked like a champ. Leak wen't down to nothing and although they tell you to add more of the stuff at some specified time interval, IIRC, this thing went about a year before it needed another hit.
I once lived next door to a regional VP for Bardahl . He would always give me product, stickers and promotional clothing. He also gave me advice, and the first advice he gave me was that "there are no tools in these cans". That notwithstanding, there are indeed hundreds of products in the form of additives that actually do work for the scope of problem they were designed to correct. Some of them are (or were) added to brand new automobiles as part of the manufacturing process.
One poster above offered an example of how his shop teacher put a seal in a pickle jar full of a leak stopping additive and commented on how the thing blew up. Well, what else would you expect when the seal was subjected to a concentration of the stop leak chemical that was hundreds of times stronger than the seal would have seen in actual use. Anecdotal information like this doesn't help or detract from the subject at hand. It's kinda like saying you tied a brick to a cat and threw him in the river and he drowned. This surprises you?
There's really no downside to giving the product a try.

 

I use omegas version of it in hydraulic systems that has high temp working conditions.
The heat makes rubber hard during time and the additive prevents that.
If used for what it intended to do it works fine.
Next thing to ask is what it does to a motor thats been ran on single grade ?
Perhaps all deposits will come loose and end up in non desirable places.
And no additive in the world fixes worn shafts or rope seals.