Oil Filter Adaptor

[Canuck Dart]

Boy it's good to be back...here's a real rookie type question - I should know this but...

When I first bought my dart 3 yrs ago, it leaked oil from every imaginable location. The first winter was a mission of replacing gaskets, the oil pan, the cracked intake - rear seal etc. Many hours were spent hunting down leaks. This was fine, but there has still been one intermittent drip that I never could find. Some days it would leak, others not.

Well a few days ago - I found it - not because I was looking for it, but because it turned into a geyser of crude that poured all over my garage floor. The 340 is equipped with a right angle oil filter adaptor & the bonehead who owned the car before me installed it without any gaskets, just gooping it up with silicone.

I got me a gasket set, but I want to make sure I am putting it on right. Seeing as there were no gskets on the thing and none of my manuals shows location and the gasket set came with zero in the way of instructions, I have no reference.

The set comes with 3 gaskets: One large paper, One small cork and One small fibre/metal. It is obvious the that the large gasket goes on the outside ring & the cork one goes between the large bolt head & the housing but where does the small fibre/metal guy go? It seems to me that it would go on the bolt on the INSIDE of the housing, between the adaptor & the block but I want to make sure.

So? this one should be a piece of cake - a simple instruction sheet included with the gasket set would have saved me anxious days of waiting for this board to come back up...

[71 scamp]

Are you sure you have to use the adapter? We don't use them on small block a-bodies with headers, we use short oil filters. I remember trying to figure out those gaskets also but I don't remember how they went.

[Canuck Dart]

Yeah...I'd like to keep it for the time being - anyone else know?

[Canuck Dart]

Oh yeah...I should mention that this weekend is our local Mopar event, so I would really like to be together today - a speedy answer would be GREATLY appreciated.

I will post info on the show on another thread should anyone be close enough or interested.

Thanks

[dwayne penner]

Hey Canuk,

is your weather dry or wet in Pilot Butt?

I put the gaskets in this winter, and I HAD to run the adapter, almost had to undo the headers to get the adapter bolt tight.
This is what I did, and it's proably wrong. The big gasket is a giveaway. I stacked the small cork and washer type doie between the bolt head and the adapter. It's probably wrong cause it leaks & I am always tightnening it. What might work better is small cork between the block & adapter with the washer between the bolt head & adapter.

Take some time, sit down & think about how they fit together best, and if you get is wrong, yeah it's a messy job, but it's less than $10 cdn for the gaskets.

good luck

[Canuck Dart]

Dwayne - hot n' dry - thanks for the input. It's hard to believe there is no information on this thing. Maybe you get instructions when you buy the whole assembly rather than just the gasket set

[BillyBob]

Can't help you with the gasket placement as I don't remember, but the bolt torque spec is 15-16lbs.

[dwayne penner]

ya know, now that I think about it I have seen it posted before, mabe the info will show up on a search?

[dwayne penner]

never mind, I didn't realize the data base is still missing...hopefully it will come back!

[Canuck Dart]

here goes nothing . . .

[Hammer 74]

The fibre/metal goes between the bolt and the adapter and the cork beween the adapter and the block. I have had these adapters leak when all looked well. On one I had the distance beween the large surface with gasket to the block was more than the center cork gasket so when I tightened it down and fired it up I ended up with an 80 psi geiser of oil. I think a remote adapter is next. I can not use a short filter like the one on my Ram without the adapter. I am using Hooker Super Comp headers.

[Canuck Dart]

Still leaks ... it's back to just being a drip tho .
Hammer 74 - yep I put it in the same as you described & got about the results you described. I have room to put a short filter in around my cheapo crap flowtech headers (they are gonna make a swell lawn ornament some day), so that is the route I am going to take. If the thing won't fit when I replace the headers I will look at a relocation kit myself.

Now - gotta find me a screw into the block threaded thingy, 'cuz the one in the adoptor is too small - wish me luck.

Thanks everybody for your input.

[dwayne penner]

hey canuk

those thingys are easy to come by. any chrysler small block without adapter ie almost all of them, and a 3/8 drive ratchet and extention is all you need.

if you want to sell me your old one the one I have is borrowed, and I don't have a choice...

[Canuck Dart]

Yeah, kinda figgered that out - all of my parts (blocks, etc. are at the farm 2 hrs. away - so I guess I will go cruisin' wrecking yard this afternoon - I Kind of doubt the local dealer will have one.

As far as the adapter is concerned, the way it refuses to stop leaking, I am suspecting it might have something wrong with it. (warped?) I will check it out once I get it off and if it is OK, I will be happy to let it go cheap.

Thanks for your interest, Dwayne - hey - whats yer ride? Mine's a '73 Dart Sport 340/4 speed.

[dwayne penner]

I own a '70 duster 340 (originally a six cyl car) with a friend, a '79 aspen RT 360, and a 98 ram 4x4 (but I only use it to get parts ). I have Inlaws in Saskatoon so I find myself out there every now and again. Hope you guys have a great show this weekend!

[brian phillips]

Hey, guy with the dart...

Had this same prob and talked to Herb McCandless.. This is what he told me..


1. Throw away the thick cork gasket.. This sometimes will stop the thin gasket from fully seating.
2. Use the thin, big gasket between the block and adpt.
3. Put the thin small,metalshimmed gasket behind the bolt head.
4. Bolt it up and tighten..

I have felt your pain...
No MORE LEAKS>>>>


72 cuda...360..edel heads...8.00 in 1/8 some rocker probs right now. soon to be fixed.

[Hammer 74]

If you do not use the thick gasket unfiltered oil will leak around the bolt. Does not sound like a good idea to me.