Do you think it would be alright to drive 800 miles on a leaky crank seal? Sounds like an obvious answer.... of couse not, but heres the deal,

I just got my ASP underdrive pulley and I figured I might as well put that on and replace the belts while im in there. Labor at pepboys and nissan for the whole job is $200 - $300. The problem is I dont have a garage here in denver and I can't justify paying someone to do something I can do myself. Im headin back to iowa in a few weeks where I have an arsenal of tools/garage space. So as long as I kept up on the oil you think there would be any problems?

 

just check the oil level every time you stop and get gas and you should be fine

 

Awesome... thanks

 

Reluctant to admit this..............but I probably put 15K on my poor max before replacing the seal. As long as it doesn't leak so much that you can't reasonably keep the proper level of oil in it and as long as you are diligent about checking and adding as needed, it shouldn't cause any problem. I had 10w30 rustproofing treatment over half of my undercarriage before I got it done though.......doesn't smell too good on the exhaust.

When I changed it out I went with the ASP pulley also..........car was noticeably more perky, especially when accelerating from about 20-50 MPH. Good luck!

 

-Sean

 

Yeah I hear ya, after about 20-30 minutes it smells like a gastrol gtx barbbq. thanks for the info...

 

How many hours labour for a garage to fix this crank seal ? Mine is getting pretty bad right now ...

 

dude, $200 is INSANE to replace that pulley and belts! It takes 30 minutes, MAX!

Take them the pulley and the belts yourself (total cost, about $160), and then pay them the labor to swap it out and install a new crank seal (about $15 for the seal), and you should be in the $225 TOTAL range for parts and labor.

 

I thought the seal was only $5 or so. But yeah, $200 is a bit much. Do it yourself. Autozone will loan you a pulley puller, but you need to buy your own bolts for it because the kit doesnt have any that fit our crank pulley (stupid ultra-fine thread). I had never done it before, and it took me maybe 1.5 hours the first time I attempted it (and I have ABS which makes it more of a PITA).

 

Well you don't really need the puller to get the stock one off. I never did. So if you haven't put on the ASP unit on yet, the stocker can just be wiggled off (MOST of the time). If not, a std 3 claw puller will work on the stock steel one.

If your asp pulley is already on, defer to Mizeree's post on pulling the ASP unit off. I had to scrounge around for two thin fine thread bolts for the puller. I highly suggest taking the ASP unit down to home despot or something and find two long/thin bolts for the puller

 

I have decided to just do it myself when I go back home. And yeah cost of living out here is retarded...so i imagine the price to fix shlt is just as dumb. My main concern was the drivability issue (800 miles) with the oil leak, but from whats been said, it sounds like it shouldn't be too big of a deal. Thanks for the input

 

nah, it won't be a problem, unless the sucker is pouring oil out..
just take a couple quarts with you and check it every now and then.
be sure to shut the engine off and wait a while though- the VE stores tons of oil in the heads and stuff, so if you check it immediately after shutting off, you will ALWAYS show to be low on oil. (I used to check it when filling w/ gas.. it always showed a quart low, so I kept adding a quart and driving away... After about two months, I drained out the oil and had TEN QUARTS in it!!!! )

 

How is that possible?

 

Holy heLL!
thanks for the info