I posted a message a couple of weeks ago asking for information about
installing an oil seal that had failed again after only 3k miles.  I got
some great feedback, especialy from Bob Donalds about the importance of
oil seal thickness.  They are speced at 10mm deep but it seems that most
of the ones for sale are actualy 12mm deep. Following Bob's advise I
have trimmed a new oil seal to the correct thickness and installed it (I
also installed a  new pulley wheel crankshaft seal as that was total
shredded also) but I have not yet installed the engine back into the van
(an 87 Syncro), I was planning to do that this weekend.  BUT, last night
I was tidying up my files and I came accross all the PO's receipts for
the van which I thought I had lost.  On inspection it would appear that
this engine (which was installed in 1998 about 60k miles ago) has had 5
oil seals replaced if you include the two that I have done - almost one
every 10k miles!.  Now I am concerned that something strange and serious
must be wrong with the engine but I have no clue what it could be as it
appears to run perfectly well (no undue vibration) and I checked the
endfloat which appears to be right on spec.  The only thing I think to
do right now before I put the engine back in is try putting on another
flywheel that I have as a spare and hoping that that might somehow have
been the problem.  Any ideas??
Many Thanks,
David