Hi,

I thought I would entertain you and your post for something to do to get me out of doing something else that’s closer to actual work. (:). Sunday.

The story you gave is very normal after having spent as much money as you have on the car.
A totally rebuild of the power train is not very normal unless your are really enthusiastic about a car of this age. I would say that you are definitely in that category.

I will say I detect some grumbling on this affair since and you were not expecting anything but a whole new power performance.
It must be nice to afford the service
I’m with on that. Because, We like what we like!

Lot of us, that are capable, are just enthusiastic in doing our own work to save the bucks for another tool in our boxes. (:)
Not quite as bad as to build your own house from the ground up and not use any contractors. Imagine that collection of tools.
Yep, We all depend on others to help to provide materials and expertise.
A supply chain is required no matter on any such complex projects.

That person who rebuilt the engine installed the clutch was doing the same thing collecting tools for a living though.
He relies on his supply chain and the chain itself relies on their counter parts.
It’s even a mixed bag for the factories to build things.
They use to say that a vehicle made on a Wednesday had a better chance of being a very very good car because everyone was there to assemble it.
It’s the closest to the product the designers meant for the car to be.
The thinking above is only one aspect of manufacturing. It is very small one if you consider all the other components are made on days based throughout the months prior. The vendors are faced with their own issues.
So the mid week or WEDNESDAY builds is just nonsense, unless it’s Chevrolet. I saw interior trim and screws laying in the back ends of station wagons, on dealer lots, of the mid seventies and eighties.
The Japanese take over was an easygoing affair through later years.
It is a global game now.

As far as that engine rebuilder goes, he purchased a total engine rebuild kit and /or at least one two other kits to be combined. Maybe hobbled together these days.
Its probably goes to say with what was available to the best of his ability.
He has built up a reputation, that you followed, by doing something right. An oil seal only, that’s good!

I would suspect you have slighted his ego some but at the same time, you have made him a better mechanic. He will check more closely over his supply chains for the future.

I have used a few seals and kits and found them to be hobbled as well.
I personally have gotten a RMS seal by name brand Elring.
It was sold as a replacement, probably in a set but it was one millimeter too large on the Inside Diameter for the 240 crankshafts. It was a flub up, for a nicer word, inside Elring’s kits.
I still have it if I ever have a need to sleeve up that diameter on a crankshaft because of a wear groove.
Usually you can shift the seal back as a standard practice to find a smooth spot.
This sizing issue or a groove may have happened to your rebuilder.
You had a lot of miles on that engine.

You know how it happens in the movie with Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump!
S… Happens.
Life is a box of chocolates too!
You never know what you’re gonna get inside.


240s crankshafts have a American dimension that’s within .002 of an inch of the Millimeter dimension.
Planetary bodies have been missed using conversion tables.
I can get one with Timken’s numbers. IT’s an orangish or brown silicone like a Volvo for 30%+ less.
You can get Volvo or a SKF one made by National Seal (formally Chicago Rawhide) now, partially owned or by now, completely by SKF. SH.

I have only 240 series cars so I cannot help you with a description of what oil seal should be in that car.
Oil seals are made to fit certain size shafts and into a housing.
Inside diameters and outside diameter dictate the size.
You can buy seals only with this criteria up front.
Other features are base on temperature, type of fluids, speed of rotating members and so forth.
From there a desperate designer has to justify to bean counters any other specialties.
A felt one is an unusual prospect with today’s synthetic materials and several labyrinth technologies being incorporated.

In the early seventies, yes there was “A” felt and they were literally called “rope” seals.
Very similar to steam valve packing under a bonnet nut except they are impregnated with graphites.
Back in those days, as soon as a warranty of 12,000 miles long or one year. Well not that bad.
I sincerely doubt you had anything like that, even if the engine was designed by the Porsche manufacturer of Germany “specialized” tricks.
Harley Davidson learned a lesson from those boys about their now defunct “V-Rod model” motorcycle engine.


Glad you and everyone else seems to like the five cylinders as there are lots of three cylinder engines still motivating in Britain Coopers.

Odd is even anymore?

Phil