replacing seals & gaskets?

i have read a few of the posts on replacing some of the seals/gaskets.
but someone got me to thinking the other day (yeah insert your jokes here ), anyway... i was talkin to him about replacing my rear main seal (89 xj 4.0 w/ aw4 tranny. with over 260k on the clock). well he gets to tellin me that i should go ahead & do the front seal as well. because if ya don't there will be more preassure put onto it after replacing the rear main, and then it will give out. so i'll have to rip it apart again & replace it too.
i know this may be !!!1 to some of you, but it almost makes sence.
maybe not for the reasons he gave me, but still it makes a bit of sence.
like replacing the wires when replacing the spark-plugs.
drop the oil pan, do that gasket, do the RMS, and the FMS (front main seal). or will there be more to take off to get to that?
i haven't had to tear apart the engine for anything as of yet... but with over 260,000 miles on it i'm sure i will be doing that soon enough! (timing, rings, etc.)
i'm just hoppin to have another vehicle before i have to do any "major" fixing to the engine/tranny. though there is the constant oil & cherry juice drip. that i knwo i have to clean it all up to find where they are all coming from. may be a loose fitting or a gasket that needs replaced. not sure yet.
i have replaced the valve cover gasket. but it's still dripping right on the hot exhaust cross over pipe (smokes like a bad mofo! lol) this is why i'm thinkin it is the rear main that needs replaced. but at the same time i don't want to have to rip a bunch of other stuff apart if i don't need to.
yeah, a 21 year old jeep with (as far as i can tell) all original gaskets & seals, should be replaced soon. as i'm sure that they will be givin up here in a few.


all right think that covers it for now.

thanks for any and all input!!! :cheers:

I wouldn't bother unless you suspect it.

You'll have to pull the harmonic balancer to do the front main seal. What I WOULD think about doing at the same time as the front main seal is the timing chain, but I wouldn't actually do it... just have a new spare on hand when you pull all that stuff apart. Then you can do it if you have to, but otherwise leave it alone.

I blew 4-5 quarts of oil out onto the exhaust+road on my trip to rausch creek and back last weekend (660 miles give or take), so I know what you're dealing with right now...

Degrease everything first, make sure it's actually coming from the RMS not the valve cover gasket and/or oil filter adapter.

Red fluid is probably tranny fluid, if it is coming from the same place as the oil, the front pump seal on the tranny is probably blown.

Really though you need to degrease the whole thing before you do anything just to make sure you are solving the right problem. Make sure not to screw up any electrical stuff with the water.

how ya like rausch? i was there once but didnt hit the trails(it was mothers day a few years back).

anyhow back on topic...
yeah i know i should degrease everything first. i'm kinda thinking one of those diy car washes ( don't have a hose hook up at the trailer ) i have about half a gallon of "greased lighting" degreaser and the car wash should take care of that problem. then get it home & get out the flashlight & check for all the leaks. just have to do it when we have the "spare change" & on my gf's day off.

I didn't actually wheel it (my XJ is down for the count with a blown tranny) but it's nice, second place I've been there. I rode along with some other guys, we were out there for a trailcut.

awesome. wish i would have been able to hit at least one of the trails when i lived up there (it was only a 30 min drive from where i used to live). now it'd take us around 10+ hours to get there, lol. (traveling with a 2 y/o & 2 dogs)

Yeah. If you CCV system is maintained and functioning correctly it should handle any "pressure" that might possibly try and build up. Blow-by, like s*it, happens.

In the old and nasty days it vented onto the roadway, today we have PCV or CCV systems to keep the nasty pollution level down.

As posted earlier, save the front seal until you need to do the HB, and then at that time consider a timing chain.

yeah, not too sure of the CCV/PCV thingies on the old girl ('89 i-6 4.0). the rear hose (CCV? it's the skinny one on the back of the valve cover) broke & i ductaped it back together... i know not hte best thing to do, but with no cash on hand (it was a quick fix at the time). i did get some "vacuume hose" from one of tghe parts stores... just have to check to see if it is the right size i can use to replace it. i bought it to replace the vacuume hose that goes to the MAP/MAF when it was being replaced, but it was fixed without the new hose. so i still have it.

by the way i have removed the filters in the airbox due to all the oil build up on them. both the air filter & the little filter inside the box where the CCV hose plugs into it. havent replaced either of them as of yet because i'm REALY wanting to put one of those cone filters on & eventualy a snorkle on it. (yes i know those cone filters can be a bit pricey!).

kastein, yes i know that the red juice (cherry juice) is tranny fluid. i'm just not 100% sure where it's leaking from. one of the coollant lines, the front pump, or the gasket. i have to get the whole thing cleaned up & find all the leaks. then try to fix them. (that way i won't have any problems with these ptp areas. i noticed that they have this "your vehicle can't be leaking any fluids" rule , blah!)

... what?

Let me get this straight...

Your CCV system is broken in half and duct taped back together. That's probably one of the reasons your oil is being pushed out the rear main seal.

And you have no air filter? None at all?

Are you TRYING to increase your blowby astronomically by sucking up dust and wrecking your cylinder walls and piston rings?!

Fix your disaster of an intake/filter/CCV system before you do anything else. Yikes.

i know, but lack of cash flow limits everything. it REALY sucks being out of work. so all the work i do to it is done WHEN there is any monies for it. for now, until i get back to working & bringing in some decent money.

Go to a junkyard. They will probably give you an air filter free.

:banghead:

yeah i did that when i was fixing her after the accident. out of another xj to boot... but it was after they changed the filter size!!!, so it didnt fit or work.
and from what i was able to get info on the closest junk yard to me is over an hour away.:flamemad: i hate driving that far to the "closest" yard. when i lived in pennsylvania i had like 5 yards within a 20 minute drive!!! down here they are few & far betwee, as i'm finding out! grrr

So...you can't afford $7 to buy an airfilter? You do realize it'll be a lot more expensive when you kill your engine, right? Seriously though, if you really can't afford one, hit me up back channel, we'll see about getting you one.

I want to know how he can put gas in an XJ and pay for an internet connection but can't afford an air filter. That's just plain stupid.

last air filter i priced (autozone i think it was) was $20. i know a rediculas price, so i didnt get it.
i felt that it would breath a heck of a lot better with no air filter than an oil soaked/clogged one.

not to mention in the last 6 months i've had a few bigger problems to worry about on the jeep than the air filter... like the t-case pullin a grenade on us goin down the highway at 65 mph. leaving us stranded too many miles away from home & family/friends, and no way to reach any jeepers in the general area.
finding out that to get everything transfered over "properly" (drivers licence, tags, etc.) i need to cough up another chunk of change to get back to where we used to live to get all this damn paperwork we needout of storage (i hope it's all in storage!).

and as for the internet & such, its a package deal, need a phone & it'd cost damn near as much (if not more) just to get phone service & television channels by them selves, dependiong on who is in YOUR area to get them from. we have 2, charter (junk, but thats who we went with) and embarq (WAAAY too expensive, had them before).

yeah, it'll breathe a lot better... same as you can breathe a lot better through an unfiltered cigarette instead of a filtered one.

It also kills it faster.

now THAT i wasnt thinkin about. well, just called the local parts store here & will be pickin one up tomorrow. much less than what i had seen when i was lookin to get one. now just to find the little filter that goes to the little hose that is plugged into the back of the box.