I think I'm on approximately my 6th front crankshaft seal in 2 years. The most recent one was installed about this time last year (2023) when I rebuilt the engine. At that point, I replaced the hub that pinches the timing chain drive gear, as this hub is what runs inside of the front crankshaft seal. The old hub was pretty scored up and contributed to going through seals leaking. I've used Elring, Victor Reinz, and Fel-Pro at different times.

The last seal (vistor reinz) , that survived 1 year, had the bottom outer lip pulled away from the crank hub. If one can imagine how dried out rubber things sometimes don't maintain their shape and look wavy. That's how it looked. So I removed, cleaned, inspected, everything was fine. I then installed a new seal (elring) using the plastic guide that comes with the seal, and gently and evenly tapped the seal in with a board, punch, and hammer. Careful to only put pressure at the metal backed area, gently, and evenly as possible. I acknowledge that I did not use the special install tool, but that has never been a problem before. I then filled with the fancy green 0W-40 that ECS sells.

The new seal appears to be leaking. So I've ordered another Victor Reinz seal, AND the special install tool, and will use the same oil but in 5w-40w this time.

What I'm really lost on, is why this keeps happening. The first few seals I understand because the crank hub was damaged. The new hub shows no signs of rubbing, so pushing the seal in a little further, or not as far, to seal n a different part of the hub doesn't apply. I also don't know what made the lip of the last seal curl away from the crank hub.

Possibilites of current leak include piston blow by (can do a compression test), bad PCV causing excessive crankcase pressure, and just a bad job of installing the latest seal. Can anyone think of possibilities I'm missing? Does anyone put some kind of sealant where the outside diameter of the seal mates to the inside diameter of the crankcase?