Oil filter mount gasket?

I'm leaking a decent amount of oil from my oil filter...I KNOW it's not the O-ring on the filter, it's been doing it every oil change since I purchased the truck.

There's a gasket behind the oil filter mount (where you spin the oil filter on to), right?

Yea, there's one back there. They rarely go bad, I would clean the general area and make sure it's not coming from somewhere else...valve covers are a more likely suspect. Which vehicle of yours is this on?

It's leaking on my '99 Ranger 4.0 OHV.

4.0L OHV's are known to leak from the O ring on the oil filter adapter

bad news is the exhaust must be moved to access it
Easy fix once you move the exhaust out of the way, clean, new o ring, tighten, done.

410...so the oil filter mount has an o-ring behind it? In addition to a gasket or is an o-ring what seals it to the block?

Exhaust isn't a problem...it was JUST off so everything will come off easily now.

IIRC, its an o-ring behind the oil filter mount (no gasket).. Its between the mount and the block..

If your really lucky the center bolt to the mount is just loose..

In this pic.. the Center bolt is yellow and the mount is the green thing on the side of the block...



~Mark

Thanks a lot for the pic Maniac...now I know exactly what I'm looking for.

Do you HAVE to pull the exhaust manifold to replace the oil filter adapter? Or can you just pull the Y pipe?

BTW, There is a TSB on oil filter adapter leaks. The TSB says that the adapter itself leaks due to porosity. Although it seems most people on here find that a new oring is the cure.

Did you fix your leak with a new o-ring?

35Remmy said:

Thanks a lot for the pic Maniac...now I know exactly what I'm looking for.

Click to expand...

Sorry to bring up an old thread but I am fighting a very slight oil leak from this adapter on a new shortblock...

This adapter never leaked on the old engine and I can't for the life of me fix this...I have replaced the o-ring 3 times and it has been tightened past 40 ft=lbs and I still get a leak from there..

I have checked the valve covers, the back of the heads, the back of the intake manifold, the oil pan and the rear main seal... The only place I am getting oil leakage is the bottom half of the adapter running down the pass rear corner of the block to the last oil pan bolt and then running down onto the middle exhaust pipe and convertor..

As I still have the old block I was looking at the mounting pad and I saw a slight divet where the locator arm on the adapter sat...I don't know if the new block has this divet...I will be taking this apart again Thursday so I will see if this could be the problem...

Otherwise I am thinking of going with an aftermarket remote oil filter mount...

Anyone please chime in if you have seen this problem... And how you fixed it...

Read the TSB about adapter porosity. Maybe that's your issue. If there's anything on the block that prevents a flush mounting, that certainly needs to be looked at as well. If all else fails, replace all gaskets/orings related to it.

You don't happen to know the TSB number do you? I have looked under the general search for TSB's but didn't find any issues for the adapter...

The strange thing about it is that this adapter didn't leak a bit on the old block...And all I did was to transfer it over to a new block...

And I have replaced the o-rings on this adapter 3 different times and still I have oil leaking...

I will look at the block mating surface to insure there is nothing causing a fitment issue... I just hate that Ford is dragging their feet on sending a replacement adapter that I bought on Monday... It looks like I will not get that part until June 3 or 4 if I am lucky...

I think I found the link to that tsb somewhere on this forum. It's tsb 04-19-10 OIL LEAK FROM OIL FILTER ADAPTER - 4.0L SOHC ENGINE BUILT BEFORE 4/1/04. Here, I'll type the bulk of it for you...

Issue: some vehicles equipped with a 4.0 sohc engine, with an engine build date of 4/1/04 or earlier, may exhibit an oil leak from the rear of the engine. The leak may be coming from the oil filter adapter, due to porosity. When the oil filter adapter leaks, the oil may wick around or follow the ladder frame gasket channel to the rear of the engine. The oil leak may appear to be coming from the rear main oil seal and/or the ladder frame gasket area.

Action:
Inspect the oil filter adapter and determine the oil leak source, per workshop manual section 303-00, prior to any repair attempts. If the oil filter adapter is the source, replace the adapter. Refer to the following procedure.

Remove RH exhaust manifold. Remove oil filter. Remove oil filter adapter mounting bolt and the adapter from the engine. Position the new oil filter adapter and gasket to the cylinder block. Install new oil filter mounting bolt seal onto the mounting bolt and install the bolt into the engine block (hand-tighten). Torque the adapter mounting bolt to 42 ft lbs. Install new oil filter. Refill oil to proper level. Reinstall exhaust manifold.

3L2Z-6881-BA oil filter adaptor
3L2Z-6L621-AA Gasket (filter adaptor)
E3TZ-6749-A Seal (bolt)

This seemed to apply to 03/04 Explorer sport tra, explorer, ranger, mountaineer. One poster says you can remove the Y pipe instead of the exhaust manifold. He listed a procedure that I'm sure you can search for on here somewhere.

I had actually found this information at Jasper engines' site...

http://www.jasperengines.com/pdf/Ford4.0OilLeaks.pdf

They go into detail on the porosity issues...Thanks for the TSB # as well...

And I can tell you that the Y-pipe being removed is the easiest way to get to that adapter...4 bolts, 3 nuts and pry the pipe out the way...It takes me longer to raise the truck and gather tools than remove this pipe...

I don't remember if the mounting pad is painted or not...That could cause a sealing problem I guess... I will be looking at this adapter today even though I don't have the new part yet... Ford, are you listening???

That TSB is for a different motor. its for the sohc motor, not the ohv.

When we did our motor, we did not paint the area where the oil filter went. I've heard horror stories about people that painted the valley and had the paint peel over time (in contact with oil) and eventually plug up the pickup screen.

~Mark

You definitely don't want to paint the oil filter mounting surface. Over short time, the oil will peel up the paint. A little lacquer thinner should remove it just fine.

You may need to clean the area completely with brakleen, start the engine for a short period of time, and see where the first drop of oil comes from.

Motorcraft is who rebuilt this engine...

And they didn't paint the oil filter adapter mounting pad either...I just didn't have any pics of that area and could not remember if it was painted or not...

I don't have the new adapter yet and as far as i can tell the old adapter is not damaged...But I have a remote filter mounting kit that I am considering using and at some point in the next few days I will have this leak stopped...

Remote filter kits tend to leak worse than factory stuff. I wouldn't do that unless you had to. Something must not be flat, or the gasket is bad or wrong part#. Clean it good and look real hard at what's going on. Make sure the oil filter isn't double-gasketed or have a bad gasket itself. Make sure the gasket for the bolt is good too. Check the adapter gasket for tears in the impregnated silicone.

The rubber o-ring bought at Ford for this adapter is the only one available for it... The thought of a remote oil filter comes after using them on all the Ranger coversions I have done over the years without a problem...And the leak is coming from the adapter area not the filter itself...

What i am waiting on is the new adapter I bought through Ford; It might get to me before next week...I am going to check the mounting pad for flatness and see if I can find a problem with the old adapter...Oh and the bolt o-rings have been replaced as well...

Keep us posted on what you find out. I'm curious. Maybe overtightening of the bolt warps the adapter?

i to have a problem with the oil fill adapter leaking on my sons 98 ford explorer,got new o rings and going to do it tomorrow, can u really just unbolt the y pie and have ccess to the bolt on the adapter ,this one is a sohc egine