Flywheel seal leakage?

[ivath]

I rebuilt my 3.2 engine two years ago and it has been completely leak free until now. Yesterday I observed some oil on the garage floor and some drops of oil were hanging on the gearbox, see the marked area on the picture. The area between the oil drops and the flywheel was glossy due to some oil. Will a leaking flywheel seal show up as oil drop from the marked area?

Some oil can be observed in the flywheel area of the gearbox.

[KTL]

Is the top of the engine dry? I ask that because sometimes the oil breather hose gets dry and brittle and some leaking from there can go right down the back of the engine, onto the bellhousing and end up in the same place on the bottom.

I suggest cleaning up the area and running the engine at various rpms with the car sitting still. That will isolate the problem. When you drive it, the air underneath the car will move oil all over the place and make it harder to pin down the source.

[ivath]

The top of the engine is dry. I will clean everything and change the sealing ring on the gearbox drain plug. I agree that the air underneath the car will move the oil and makes it difficult to determine the cause. Hopefully it's only the drain plug and the air has moved the oil towards the rear of the gearbox.