Distributor Oil Leak

[KeppelmanJ]

On an '81 coupe, after a head swap I have an oil leak at the seam between the distributor and the cam box. This is not oil coming from the weep hole in the distributor body. Seems like the culprit is likely the O-ring on the distributor housing. Anyone know where to find a replacement for that? International Autosports doesn't have it.

Gratefully.
Johnny Keppelman
Wahington State

[cthargiss]

If you are near Seattle, try O-Rings West at 1111 N 98th. They will be able to match it for you.
Craig

[KeppelmanJ]

Thanks, Craig. What I was hopng for was a particular substitute or part number since I can't have the car tieing up work space right now. I was tryng to avoid pulling the distributor (hence a dead car) and then running around hoping for an O-ring match. I may have to do it your way though. I'm up in B'ham.

[Tom McGaffigan]

John,
Not sure if you are talking about an end drive distributor, or an off the side of the cam type. The off the side of the cam type use an oil seal not an o ring. The end drive uses an o ring on the dist housing. For the off the side drive, oil seal type, I have found it is worth spending a few bucks more and getting a floropolymer (Viton) type oil seal. This type of seal has a temperature rating for 150 C use not 100C like the cheap buna rubber ones. If the dist is on the exhaust side this type of seal is mandatory. I got some from Obert and Co (Fiat Plus) but you can also get them from a bearing supply house. All the new turbo Fiat and Lancias have floropolymer seals on the cam boxes etc. You will have a tough time removing the drive pin that hold the cam gear to the dist shaft. It is slightly tapered but impossible to tell which end is bigger until you remove it. :twisted:
Tom Mcgaffigan

[KeppelmanJ]

Tom, thanks for the advice. As far as I know all the injected Betas had the distributor driven off the end of the exhaust cam so it's that O-ring that I need. You did get me going though as I hadn't thought of Chris Obert. I called him and they had the part and will drop it in an envelope tomorrow. I'm losing a bit of oil, but with any luck that will be the only source. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find you lurking on this list! Thanks.

[PAV]

Thought to update this ol' thread with some new information.

I looked here as I am still having this nagging internal distributor leak and some of that smoke does screw up my driving experience.

My engine rebuild was great; we had a seal, a new one which we sourced from a seal distributor in Portland; however, it was likely not up to spec it would seem; therefore it did not stop the oil flow as much as we'd have liked.

Called OBERT as per the Earlier Post by Tom Mcgaffigan.

Hey, I know OBERT and he is an active Mirifiori member and goes to Fiat/ Lancia events on the west coast!

Ok, I will support him and hopefully he can support me.

Viola!

I ordered 2 of these seals 17 bucks a piece. They must be good!!

Outer o-ring is $9

Oh Happy Day!

BR,

Paul

[Jim Keller]

I had a leak like that too, I always thought it was my outer O ring, turned out it was the gasket for the distributor drive housing to cam box gasket. Also known as Scorpion Emission pump drive housing cam box seal, anyway, it fooled me pretty good because the oil that leaked from it would get oround the box making it look like it was the O ring

[PAV]

I'll take a look at that one!