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Hey guys,

I am doing my engine swap this weekend as you may know from reading the thread in the parts shed. I had a small oil leak in the good engine ever since it was rebilt and I now found it.



Looks like the guy who rebuilt the motor used black RTV silicone to hold that plastic cover piece on. The oil was leaking from the bottom of that plastic piece.

So, do i just use ALOT more RTV and slap it back on or should i use something else?

Help please, i'm trying to get this in today.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Subaru uses RTV as their officail fix, I can't tell you how many of those I've done. Before you put the plate back on, make sure that plug is nice and tight, and the threads are clean, because you may as well stop that from leaking oil too. Peace
-Adam

Thanks Adam,

one question. does that whole area fill with oil when its running? What is that area for?

It's called the Rear Inspection Cover, and you can use it to look into where that plug is and see the crank shaft. I've never seen the cover off and a motor running, but I imagine that it doesn't fill with oil, oil just leaks from that plug.

ok then,

I'll look into it before I seal it all back up. Thanks for the help.

no problem

hey what size allen wrench is that? The biggest I have is 10 and its not even close. I might have something like that at work.

I always took a bolt with a 12 mm head, and locked three 12mm nuts on the bolt and then used that little contraption to get it out. I'm not about to spend money on allen wrenches i'll never use.

another way is to get one of those long connecter nuts 12mm at the hardware store and stick it in your 12mm socket.

wow, and i thought I was smart and though outside the box. Those are two awesome ideas. i'm done for the night today though...

that is the seperator plate.... it is between the engine and the transmission and is not possible to take off of the car while the engine or the tranny is in place, and yes there is oil in it when the car is running, hence the leakage. replace the plastic cover piece with the newer updated metal one. the plastic ones warp and will keep leaking. the metal ones are available from the dealership and thats the only way to keep it from leaking again. that plug is the wristpin access hole, leave it alone unless you are taking apart the motor.

jake15 wrote:that is the seperator plate.... it is between the engine and the transmission and is not possible to take off of the car while the engine or the tranny is in place, and yes there is oil in it when the car is running, hence the leakage. replace the plastic cover piece with the newer updated metal one. the plastic ones warp and will keep leaking. the metal ones are available from the dealership and thats the only way to keep it from leaking again. that plug is the wristpin access hole, leave it alone unless you are taking apart the motor.

Exactly, I once had a customer insist that we use the old baffle (plate) because he was cheep, 4 months later he came back claming we did a poor repair because the engine was leaking oil again. Long story short the baffle was leaking again and he has to deal with a leaking engine because he didn't have enough money for us to remove the trans to replace the plate.

I dont see how that whole area fills with oil when its running. It was bone dry when I took the cover off. I will buy a new plate so long as they have one in stock.

The plug leaks, oil pools there, and it helps to warp the plastic. I fogot about that metal plate, that one is wayy solid.

That chamber has a very important function, it is the oil separator/breather box (the factory version of a catch can). It’s purpose is to keep most of the oil out of the PCV system, the hole at the bottom connects to the oil pan, the middle hole (just below the piston pin plug) opens to the main case area and up at the top is the main case vent to the PCV system. You'll also note that back of the cover plate has a baffle built into it.

Horizontally opposed engine kinda have special needs when it comes to case venting. They lack the vertical separation between the crank case/oil pan and the suction point you find in V or inline type engines (normally the top of the valve covers). This chamber is the factories way of dealing with that, and from that design of it I think it works pretty well.

Well folks I picked up the new plate and the required cap screws to mount it as it does not use the phillips head counter sunk screws with the new piece.

11831AA210 Cover oil seperator: $17.98
800406150 Bolt socket: $0.40 X 1 (This is a black one with some locktight on it)
800406140 Bolt socket: $0.40 X 5 (normal looking cap head screw)

For some unknown reason the black bolt goes where there is an arrow stamped in the plate. I cant for the life of me figure out why and neither could the parts guy.

So, if this does in fact fill up with oil then I dont need to remove that plug and replace the o-ring.

Thanks guys

Glad to know that these are still available. Thanks for posting part numbers.

My local dealership no longer carries the countersunk screws, but the parts guy found one in a mechanics' tool box for me. I dropped one of mine in a spray booth.

Definately use the metal one!!! I have resealed a few of these in the past few months. ONe of the other techs at work said that this little area is basically a form of a built in catch can. at least for over simplified explanation purposes. Please correct me if I am wrong (so I can correct him and call him HACK once again )

AWD_addict wrote:Glad to know that these are still available. Thanks for posting part numbers.

My local dealership no longer carries the countersunk screws, but the parts guy found one in a mechanics' tool box for me. I dropped one of mine in a spray booth.

Well they are all the same for EJ series motors, thats why they are available. The only difference is an extra baffle on the top of the plate just below the rear crank vent for the turbo motors.

93 Turbo vs 92 N/A
I thought it was very strange how the turbos got a plastic plate while the N/A's got a metal one...

New Plate
I decided to put locktite on the rest of the socket heads just for safety. When i removed the old plate all the flat-heads were loose. No question why it was leaking.

The aluminum sep plate is the best one to use IMO. The bolts aren't shit and don't round out when your tighten them down like the newer stamped steel version.

Personally socket heads are far harder to strip out then phillips but thats just me. Not like you need to torque them down very much at all... its just a matter of the RTV seal on the plate and throwing some locktite on the threads for security