front engine seal - replacement

I'm gonna bump this one back up..

Hey TC,

I saw your post, I was just waiting for someone else to have a chance to reply.

there's the obvious, remove the bulkhead cover. loosen & remove the v-belts from the crank pulley. remove the crank pulley from the balancer. remove the balancer bolt from the crank snout (an impact gun makes this job easy). remove the balancer with a puller. "If there is room". I've never done this job on a Pantera.

Once the balancer is out of the way, you just pry the seal out of the timing cover & carefully tap a new one in. The KD Tools rack in the auto parts store will have a seal puller if you don't already have one & a piece of pvc pipe that is the same diameter as the seal & long enough to fit over the crank snout would be nice for tapping the new seal in, put a little rtv around the metal case of the seal & oil on the rubber sealing lip before you tap the seal in.

Lets talk about that balalncer. Is it the oem balancer? If so, has it been rebuilt? a 30 year old balancer is a problem waiting to land in your lap! There is a company called Damper Dudes that can rebuild your balancer for a reasonable price. They will repair the damage to the collar the seal mates with. I highly recommend the rebuild. Rebuilt engine or not, nobody should be running a 30 year old balancer on their Pantera.

your friend on the DTBB, George

Thanks George, that gives me some insight. I believe that balancer is OEM. I've had the car about 3 years and the previous owner did basically nothing to this car. So I'm always finding things that need to be done to this car. It doesn't sound like that big of a job. I was also wondering if my "oil fill" breather cap was the culprit. It's steel, with a brillo like mesh on the inside. Looks well used and was thinking this may be somewhat restrictive. I'm going to replace that as well. Is that size something that can found at a local auto parts or is that a vendor type item? I have the the flat-dull looking valve covers with "DeTomaso" stamped on them.