Oil Pan Gasket Replacement...

[jasonty]

Anybody have any tips when replacing the oil pan gasket? And also, what all has to be removed to accomplish this? Thanks...

 

[Blackheart4355]

Jason,

I would think you would just do the following as on any car...
1. unhook battery
2. drain the oil
3. unbolt pan
4. scrape off old gasket material on both pan and block
5. drop old filter/install new filter filled w/oil
6. bolt up pan/torque to specs
7. refill oil

I would change the oil as you have already done half of it to get the pan off....but that's just me....

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

lets see...

1. disconnect 02 sensors
2. drop y-pipe
3. remove starter
4. remove pan-to-trans bolts
5. remove flywheel dust shield
6. remove oil pan , use pry points if needed
7. clean oil pan maiting surface on motor and pan, reinstall seals, lay RTV
8. reinstall pan, torque bolts according to factoryt specs, in order
9. reinstall flywheel dust shield
10 reinstall pan to trans bolts
11. reinstall starter
12. reinstall y-pipe and connect 02 sensors.

What did I miss? Anything

Ah yes,

6.1 remove low oil level sender from pan. thumb

 

[Ishodu]

NotSoSlowSHO:
lets see...

1. disconnect 02 sensors
2. drop y-pipe
3. remove starter
4. remove pan-to-trans bolts
5. remove flywheel dust shield
6. remove oil pan , use pry points if needed
7. clean oil pan maiting surface on motor and pan, reinstall seals, lay RTV
8. reinstall pan, torque bolts according to factoryt specs, in order
9. reinstall flywheel dust shield
10 reinstall pan to trans bolts
11. reinstall starter
12. reinstall y-pipe and connect 02 sensors.

What did I miss? Anything

Ah yes,

6.1 remove low oil level sender from pan. thumb

You may want to drain the oil before you remove the oil pan. And a new oil filter of course.
And the #1 should be to dissconect the battery.

 

[Zap]

Is there any special karma to laying the RTV onto the pan? I'm doing this as well, and I am paranoid that I won't do it right and then cause a leak or something.

 

[jasonty]

Ok, sounds good. Thanks folks. I was hoping I didn't have to lower the subframe. Can't drain the oil out of the pan since the bolt head is stripped. I have another pan waiting for installation. I'll tackle this in a month or so. Geez I hate front wheel drive cars...

 

[SHOoff89]

Let it all drain for a while, and then make sure you use eye protection when you are under there, as all of the oil never really stops dripping in your face.

How many miles are on your car? Any reason why you are not going to do the rod bearings since you are going through all this trouble anyway?

 

[kmetros]

jasonty:
Anybody have any tips when replacing the oil pan gasket?

My tip would be to dry fit setting the pan first, before putting any RTV on it. It doesn't just go straight up - it goes around the front motor mount and around the passenger side axle. If you dry fit it a few times, you'll figure out the way to set it without hitting the edge of the pan....if you hit face and make the RTV too thin you'll end up with a leak.

Kurt
www.kurtmetros.com/red90

 

[Mr Anonymous]

FWIW, I find putting the RTV on the mounting surface of the motor instead of the pan makes it a whole lot easier and neater.

 

[Blackheart4355]

Ok,

I give up, why would you have to do anything with the Y pipe?? I don't recall it being close to the oil pan when I changed the oil last week....never mind removing the starter...are you sure that isn't a little over board??

 

[luigisho]

Positive. Removing the pan and changing the oil are 2 different animals. Even with all that stuff out of the way, getting a smooth shot with fresh squeezed rtv is tricky.

<small>[ January 25, 2004, 08:26 PM: Message edited by: luigisho ]</small>

 

[Blackheart4355]

Ok,

Again my ignorance is going to show but I've only owned mine since 3 Jan 04 sooo...

Do you really need to use RTV when re-installing your oil pan...I would think the gasket should be enough if torqued correctly....

 

[Zap]

You need to use RTV along the sides of the pan because the seals only seal the front (crank) and rear (flywheel) sides of the pan.

 

[luigisho]

Like Chris said, the seals are only on the Much smaller but semicircular shaped ends. The long straight sides of the pan only use rtv to the block mating surface.

 

[DHMag]

2 machined surfaces dont require a "gasket" per say. but to take up any flaws in the machining/flatness, RTV is used.

Blackheart, youre new and learning but there is more to working on these cars any any other FWD Ford. i, too, thought i could get away without removg the starter and i was wrong.

jasonty, the interference youll get the most headache from is the front motor mount and intermediate half shaft. i think i might have actually bowed my oil pan a bit squeezing it between these 2 items.

 

[clintonk]

One more tip: use fresh RTV. I sealed my oil pan with RTV left over from a 60K job a few months earlier, and it failed to cure. Had to start over with a new tube.

Clinton Knight
'90 White 194K
'95 Green 61K

 

[DHMag]

clintonk:
One more tip: use fresh RTV. I sealed my oil pan with RTV left over from a 60K job a few months earlier, and it failed to cure. Had to start over with a new tube.

Clinton Knight
'90 White 194K
'95 Green 61K

when i grab a tube of RTV Black, i dont smoosh it just to make sure its still gooey, i smoosh it to mix it up, if any settling/seperation has occured

 

[Speedy_91_SHO]

Use enough, but not too much. Fill in the grooves and put your RTV along the outside of the mating surface. This is just in case you did put too much and when you are torquing it down it doesn't squeeze to the inside of the engine.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

IIRC, the shop manual specifies a 6mm bead of rtv.

if that helps

 

[SHOZ123]

The kit comes with two small tubes of RTV black but I bought a big tube. Used all of it and never opened the two small ones. I wouldn't worry too much about what is on the inside as long as you allow 24 hrs for curing.

After three dry run tries, I got mine in in one smooth motion without any problems at all on my MTX.