Sealing a WM L98 Rear Main

[VT&VX]

From my reading on the problem, everyone who just tried replacing the seal, without the plate failed. Had to do again.

Still looking after your father? If so, how old is he now?

He is gone, but we keep his car on the road. This car.

 

[Lex]

He is gone, but we keep his car on the road. This car.

Sorry to hear that.

Hope you are well?

& Look after his car, he'll be watching.

 

[bluehighway]

I have that leak.
Reading the replies (useful ones only), the option to replace plate and seal has additional expense in parts, but is the seal already pressed into the plate?
I assume a mechanic would have all required tools to just replace the seal in the existing plate.

So saving $95 by just buying the seal, means a mechanic would be required to do the job, but spending $120 for plate with seal means I could end up laying under the partially disassembled car in driveway and then still need to get it to the mechanic.

At risk of joining the uninformed and do it properly comments... (and ive never done a rear seal on an ls1) from studying various youtube clips etc... Firstly im of the opinion the rear plate is a weak spot in that numerous LS folk seem to have rear seal issues (some of which appear not to be rear seal but the gasket on the plate according to some who claim apparently the alloy plate warps overtime ,others claim the sealing gasket breaks down) regardless I see a few issues one being the sump gasket the other being centring the rear main seal and torquing it down without it moving and not being in snug allround alignment with the crankshaft end ... I wouldnt be in a hurry to replace the rear plate/seal if it was only leaking nominal amounts . If I had to get it done I would take it to a GM service centre that way if they didnt get it right you could get them to do it again...(and I have seen a few posts where this has happened after a very brief period of time).... Ive thought about it and if my car starts leaking Im thinking of fabricating a sheetmetal catchtray that will bolt onto the trans /engine somewhere (like the metal sump guard/ splash tray)...certainly id run some stop leak thru it too see if it will reduce the leak but id run it for about 2 weeks with such and drain it out....lets face it pulling out the trans to fix what is sometimes a minor leak is sometimes akin to using a sledgehammer to shell peanuts....but as we know the cost of replacing the rear plate wont be peanuts.....lets throw the blame where it belongs...its a design weak spot... (How many toyotas have leaky rear main seals...lol)