Subject: Mk2 2.4 York diesel — exact oil filter housing seal

[metalworker0]

ford part number .. it has many other fort number

put these words into ebay

FORD, 1531789

and on over half of them you get the seal as well as the element


all the best.mark

[SirJohnMK2]

That listing looks very promising — it's explicitly sold "for Ford Transit 2.4 York engine". Looking at the photo though, the ring looks more like a thin round wire O-ring to me, not obviously square in cross-section like dumper described. Could just be my eyes / photo angle though — what do you think?

[SirJohnMK2]

Quick update after digging through several commercial listings (with some help from an AI assistant — using Claude with a paid account, which turned out to be genuinely useful for cross-referencing multiple product descriptions quickly):

I checked five different oil filter listings claiming fitment for the Ford Transit 2.4D (FP3338, FILTRON with ref. 1531789, MAHLE, KNECHT, and MANN H1029/1n). All of them list dimensions for the filter element itself (roughly 100mm OD, 34mm ID, ~100mm height) and confirm “comes with seal”, but none of them give a separate, standalone measurement for the housing-to-block O-ring specifically.

One listing (MANN) even had a “Dichtring” spec block, but on closer inspection that turned out to be for the sump drain plug washer (14.5mm ID, 22mm OD, Nylon) — a completely different, unrelated part, not the housing seal we’re after.
So the open question remains: does anyone have the actual standalone dimensions (ID/OD/cross-section) for the seal that sits between the housing and the block itself? That seems to be the one piece of data that isn’t published anywhere in these commercial catalogues.

Thanks again for staying on this with me!

[dumper]

Think i got my wires crossed and lead him to a 2.5
but looking into it .. i don't know what difference between 2.4 and 2.5, so called york engine are

The turbo version in the LDV 2.5 Manual .. this manual is the only thing i have to go on, had an oil cooler sandwich plate of the type you could buy in the 80s from a place like demon tweaks, for any vehicle to add an oil cooler.
he could be going on about that for all i know

this sort of thing

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153030984031?

no more answers from me,until given more details

all the best.mark

The 2.5 DI is direct injection engine based on the 2.4 York indirect injection and uses a uprated stronger block and new head design.
For cold starting the first engine fitted in the mk 1 had a heater plug in the inlet manifold which had a fuel supply a very bad cold starting engine used to burn the air filter element down to nothing they later fitted 4 glow plugs one I each cylinder much better starter.
At work I had to rebuild a DI out of a mk2 the driver ran it without any water and engine needed a complete rebuild the company that did the rebore and crankshaft grind ground the crankshaft to York tolerance and it was deeper then the hardening of the crankshaft end result it knocked out number one conrod and crank journal they stud by their work and supplied brand new crank and conrod.

[metalworker0]

One thing you could do is go to your local car parts distributor outlet .. look through the spin on oil filter selection taking them out of the cardboard boxes .. looking for a seal on one them, to ascertain if it would take the place of your seal that goes against the block with your separate element type.

The seals on spin on oil filter cartridge types are flat square section rubber

Also you could find a local garage and look through there discarded old oil filters from the services they have just done, to find a seal.

all the best.mark

[metalworker0]

btw .. thanks dumper for explaining the 2.4 / 2,5 thing

all the best.mark

[dumper]

New Oil Filter Fits Ford Transit 2.4 York Engine (FP3338)

Retro-Car-Parts (2739)
99.7% positiv
Did a google search this is on eBay

[SirJohnMK2]

@metalworker0 — that’s a genuinely useful practical approach, thanks. I’ll try that once the van is back home: comparing seals from spin-on filter boxes, and checking with a garage for discarded filters from recent services.

@dumper — just flagging that the FP3338 from Retro-Car-Parts is the same listing I already checked a few days back (see my earlier post with the eBay link and photo) — the ring looked like a thin round wire O-ring, not the square-section seal you originally described.

One longer-term thought, in case it’s useful for others reading this thread too: once I get the van back and can measure the actual groove properly, my plan is to look into getting a small batch professionally made by a seal/gasket manufacturer rather than relying on a lucky cross-reference match. If that works out, I’d be happy to make a few spare seals available here for anyone else running into the same wall with this engine — seems like this thread alone shows there’s a small but real community of us stuck on the same problem.

For now though, still hoping someone recognizes the actual part from experience — that would obviously be the quickest fix. Will keep this updated either way.

[dumper]

I remember years ago we struggled to get a O ring for something and a local tractor dealer had a kit in there parts department for making O rings it was a type of pliers that held both ends of a length of O ring material of the correct diameter and you put superglue on the ends and pushed them together squarely till they stuck together they probably had square section rubber as well

Another possibility is a hydraulic specialist that makes up pipes and sells fittings we used to use Pearson hydraulics Lincoln and there’s always Pirtec

Now I’m sure they were square section and hard rubber a O ring that is a tight fit in the block may work

[SirJohnMK2]

@dumper — that O-ring kit idea is brilliant, thanks! Being able to make a custom ring to the exact groove diameter would solve the whole problem in one go, square-section and all. Do you happen to remember the name of the kit, or the manufacturer of the O-ring cord material? Trying to figure out what to search for once I’m ready to go down that route.

Also good to hear the square-section detail keeps coming up independently — that’s now the third time it’s been mentioned, so I’m fairly confident that’s the right shape to look for.

Will look into Pearson Hydraulics and Pirtec too — didn’t realise Pirtec had a wider network, worth checking if there’s a branch near me.

[metalworker0]

looking at your picture

download/file.php?id=56854&mode=view

it does actually look like a round section o-ring that's been squashed flat

but the ebay filter elements .. have too thin an oring for this to happen

well the above picture may show a wrong one fitted ..

i try looking for a 2.4 manual .. but all i get is later stuff .. impossible to find it

ive actually made filter housings for cartridge filters in the past for various gizmos ive built

very simple, maybe to convert yours to this .. involves short bit of threaded tube to screw into the middle.... and if that centre thread is the same as the thread on modern cartridge .. you are home and dry

all the best.mark

[metalworker0]

And in the classic car world .. parts are still readily available for original set-ups and conversion adaptors for spin on oil filters

this is triumph 2.5 and stag , vitesse etc

https://www.chriswitor.com/products.php?cat=308

You never know at the time ford may have been using the exact same components for its filter element types

There are several suppliers of classic car parts that hold huge stocks of stuff, if any are near to you visit and find out .

Moss Europe,branches in London (Feltham), Shipley (Bradford), and Stockport (Manchester)

Rimmer Bros, Lincoln

SNG Barratt, Bridgnorth, Shropshire

SC Parts, Crawley

All the best.mark

[dumper]

pirtec are a mobile service only ever used them that way not sure if they have workshops as for the kit I don’t know the name and the dealership has long gone so I can’t pop up and ask them sorry as Mark said it’s worth looking into the classic world of Parts supply