Undercarriage Splash Panels

rgorke

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My '04 V8 with 270K miles has an oil leak coming from either the front seal behind the harmonic balance and/or the front cover gaskets. I include the front seal because I replaced that 3-4 years ago with the harmonic balancer and I may not have gotten it in 100% correctly.

I am thinking of putting an additional splash panel that extends from where the existing panel ends at the radiator crossmember past the oil pan to the engine crossmember. In theory it could catch and collect the oil so that it wouldn't drip on the drive way and street. I would try and fashion a way to collect the oil drips and periodically empty the oil.

My question is would this cause any problems? Is there any reason that there isn't a splash guard there other than reducing cost? We also have a 2015 Jeep Cherokee that has a splash panel underneath that extends past the engine with trap doors to access the oil filter and oil pan plug. That's kinda where I got the idea.
 
My current car has a pretty complete splash guard / aerodynamic shield under the whole car. Of course, it was designed to have this. I feel like the LS was designed to have the opening that it does have, and blocking that opening might cause cooling problems. I suppose that you would have to try it to find out.

Both of my LSes developed that front oil leak at around 200K miles. It was not the front crank seal, the oil filter adapter, oil-to-water cooler, or the valve covers. By process of elimination I determined it to be the front timing cover gasket. It now seems like this is a common issue for elderly AJs. My solution was to put cardboard down on the garage floor in the correct spots. It is much nicer not having to do that now, but I just couldn't see putting the labor in to replace those seals. (and if you are going that far, wouldn't you replace the timing guides and chains too?)
I did not think about trying to capture the oil in a shield attached to the car. Maybe that will work for you, but I have my doubts. (My daughter's BMW had a shield. It just channeled the leak from the oil pan gasket to a different spot.)
 
I feel like the LS was designed to have the opening that it does have, and blocking that opening might cause cooling problems.
That was my main concern.
It was not the front crank seal, the oil filter adapter, oil-to-water cooler, or the valve covers. By process of elimination I determined it to be the front timing cover gasket.
Yeah, I too have changed the oil filter adapter, oil cooler, and the front crank seal. The front crank seal seemed a bit more finicky getting it installed, IIRC. I can see oil pooled in the oil cooler and that's what makes me think it might be the crank seal. The only way to find out is to tear the whole thing apart and I'm not sure I want to do that.

Would the timing guides and chains need replacing on a Gen 2? I thought it was only the Gen 1's that had timing chain issues. I recently came across a video about replacing the chains, tensioners, and guides on an AJ8. He said one could really mess things up unless you have the camshaft aligning tool.

 
I don't know if they would NEED to be replaced, but I would expect some wear by 250K miles.
 
I had the same issues with the oil mess on the front of the engine. Resealed the front covers with Ultra Blue silicone and the oil filter/cooler. The front crankshaft seal was more involved. Replaced the oem with a spring reinforcing a lip seal with a metal body with no success. Replace the seal twice with oem type with short term success. Used Ultra Blue Silicone inside the plastix oem bearing cavity and filled the volume closed to the lip seal. I had more success with it than all the others on a 492k original engine. Check the balancer if the elastomer is oil soaked, replaced if wet. The heat coming off exhaust manifolds tend to over heat the valve cover gasket also. I noticed exhaust smell on my 06 LS at 3000 rpm and above and suspect leakage. On my 04 LS replacement engine i used REMFLEX graphite gasket material to seal the outside ss cover gasket and JET HOT'ed manifolds and vt 1500 deg silicone spray between the head face and ss cover/gasket. I hope that helps.
 

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