Mazda5 2.3L Pilot Bearing and Rear Main Seal questions
 

New to owning a Mazda and this forum. Most of my experience is with VW/Audi, and I have an old Isuzu Trooper that I keep running. My wife wanted a van, so I bought an 09 Mazda5 that needed some love. Among other things it needs a clutch. I've got everything most of the way apart. I've removed everything necessary except the tranny itself. I was taking a look at my new clutch and flywheel and stuff and I've got a question.

Firstly, it looks like the pilot bearing is in the back of the crankshaft, not in the flywheel itself. I'm sure that'll become very apparent when the transmission is out. The pilot bearing that came with my clutch kit appears to be "directional" if that makes any sense. I can take a pic and post if necessary, but the needles are all to one side of the bearing and one side has like a black spacer inside of it. There's nothing in my workshop manual that mentions which way this goes in. Anyone have any idea or experience?

Second, the rear main seal does not appear to be leaking. It's pretty dry under the car in general except for the normal oil cooler nonsense, which I plan to replace with the new style anyway. The vehicle has about 150k on the clock. Does anyone have any experience with these rear mains? Should I just throw a new one at it since I'm going this far, or do they last like half a million miles? The rear main itself is inexpensive, and I did pick up the factory rear main installation tool in case I needed to do it.

Lastly, the workshop manual does not say that the pan needs to drop to replace that rear main. It says just to RTV the bottom of it where it meets the pan. I've read some conflicting information with people having good or bad luck with doing this and no dropping the pan at the same time. Any solid experience here?