Oil or rust?

[MissMoppet]

I have just bought a '74 Stag which from above the Plimsoll Line looks A1 - no welds or rust at all. Everything hunkydory. However get it on a hoist and it is plastered - absolutely smothered in oil - from the front crankshaft seal to the diff. I suspect it has stayed in such good condition because you can't have oil and rust, so do I get the seals repaired or do I live with it?
NB It has a Rover V8 - ex SD1 engine - which is absolutely what I wanted.

[StagnJag]

Hi Miss Moppet,

Welcome to the Forum. Do you have a real name? Daft question really!

I suppose it depends on:

a. do you want it to look as clean underneath as it is on top?
b. Is it dumping puddles of oil on your Drive/road/garage etc.

If it isn't leaving trails of oil behind it then with a bit of luck the leak was fixed. Probably wishful thinking though!

One thing to do sooner rather than later is to make sure the gearbox has plenty of oil left in it - and the Diff for that matter. Is it a manual or Auto?

Rgds

Dave

[MissMoppet]

". . . look as clean underneath . . . " is not really my concern. Call me old-fashioned if you like but I think I'd rather the oil was inside the engine and doing what it was designed to do than making a mess of my garage. It's a (very) manual jobby.

[V Mad]

I would get it cleaned first,then see where its coming out and how fast. Some areas may be fixed relatively easy; others such as crank seals may require expensive strip downs. Then you can fix the easy ones and see if its good enough. The SD1 engines had better crank seals than early P5/P6 ones so that should not be the cause.

[aerosilver]

The underside of mine is plastered in oil, albeit old oil as it only leaks very little nowadays. The old chap who MOTs it for me every year always tells me to not clean it off as it provides good protection.

[MissMoppet]

Thanks for that. There's a lake under the diff - well pond, so I must get that done but I agree to clean off and see what's what.