Steven,
It's true that you could have a leaky front main seal. However, more
likely, and more costly, is that you have worn out piston rings. No kidding.
While the car is running, pull out the dipstick and see if oil splashes
out of the dipstick tube. If it does, shut off the car and take a compression
reading on all four cylinders. (Triumph designed), 1296 and 1500 engines, one
of which you have, exhibit this oil splashing symptom when the combustion
gasses blow by the rings and internally pressurize the cylinder block. Since
the evaporative control systems on these engines are not very good, the
excess pressure goes out the only other hole in the block, the dipstick.
If you have to rebuild the engine, have your machine shop pay extra
attention to the rear thrust washer bearing face on the crankshaft, and
order oversize thrust washers if necessary.
Also, never start the car with the clutch depressed. When you depress the
clutch before starting, all of the force necessary to release the clutch
diaphram spring is exerted on the rear thrustwasher, which at that time
has no oil pressure around it. This is why the thrust washers wear out
so quickly on 1296, 1500, 1998 (GT-6) and 2498 (TR-6) series engines.
British Leyland issued a technical service bulletin to dealerships to
be on the lookout for excessive crankshaft axial movement, but unfortunately,
only dealerships were privy to such information.
I don't know why they (Triumph) designed your engine with only 2 crankshaft
thrustwashers, most other English cars have 4 and don't have this
problem.
I hope this helps
Greg Meboe MEBOE@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu
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