*THE* Oil Pan Gasket *THREAD*

[walth]

Hey everyone. happy 4th!

today I am going to be changing out my oil pan gasket, will take some pics, etc. I wanted to make a thread for these oil pan gaskets since a lot of people do multiple attempts at getting their oil pan to seal properly.

a few examples can be found here: http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...599#post344599

apparently it's near the crank pulley that is problematic and what I'll definitely focus on today while doing the fix.

I'm going to be using RTV Copper just because that's what I have here at the house. (http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-81878...UEOPAwondering) Most RTV sealants are just fine.

[wybnrml]

Here is a good guide that is helpful. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=11953

[walth]

well that's stupid. I did at least 3-5 searches to make sure I wasn't *that guy* but sure enough it never fails. I'm only *cringing* and debating at how helpful that thread is because different terms need to be explained better. But I'm going to go off Jim's description there in the second reply.

On another note, I've got the pan dropped and smooth and now I'm just taking my time, bout to start on the block, clean the screen for the oil pump, .

I checked out my new gasket vs the old one. I bought the "cheaper" of the two gaskets they had but they're both rubber and the guy was trying to take me on the more expensive one. there may be a difference in the two but whatever. I did notice however that at each end those pieces are thicker but I just hope they don't roll or anything and then really cause a major leak. In theory, because they're thicker at each end than the other gasket they'll make a better seal. we'll see how that goes. As far as thickness around the rest of the oil pan it does look to be a tidbit thinner but only a set of calipers will tell tale.

I've got pics to come as well.

[walth]

so I measured the gaskets and the cheaper one that I bought (the non-felpro iirc) is the same size in the flat and way thicker on each end vs the original that I dropped with the pan.

when I dropped the pan, you can see it's very gritty as if it wasn't even sealed well, the bolts also weren't very tight. Just tight enough to stay in but I was able to break them loose with the head of the ratchet.


after I cleaned the pan


on to how I got the gasket in:

I tried it the way the manual says to do it. take out the exhaust, etc. didn't work since one of my bolts would only go about halfway down and then *POP* 15 times and then stop like I was going to bust the bolt off. I had remembered skeeter or someone say you could get the pan out, so I went ahead and started taking out all the bolts, dropped the pan, cleaned it. cleaned the block of old rtv, etc.

ready to put the gasket in and tried doing the "stick it to the rtv just long enough to get the pan on" yeah right. tried many things to no avail. so I pulled the gasket down and rtv'd it to both ends of the pan and carefully got the pan up into *space* and got situated. I put the rtv from the middle of the first and second bolts all the way accross to the other "middle of the first and second bolts" on each end of the pan. Then, put it up and wasted more time trying to get the one ghetto nut that wouldn't go onto the stud. had to play musical chairs with the bolts to hold it up while I put the strengthener's on the other ends, etc.

as far as *torque* goes...well, I followed the start from the middle and work your way out method. but I also made sure every bolt was pretty snug after going from bolt to bolt and back and forth, etc for a good 20 minutes. It's sort of like lug nuts on a wheel, you tighten 2-3 and the others are loose again, then the ones that were tight are loose, you get the idea. No reason to over-tighten, just snug up then check the ones next to that one, etc.

changed the filter, put in 5w-20 pretty close to the full line. I'm used to driving with it barely touching the dipstick. lol

I ran it for a good 5 minutes and laid in front of the car and looked for leaks, nothing yet. I'll check it tomorrow after I get home from work and let you guys know.

[WmWatt]

Short bolts can be used by adding washers?

[walth]

no, I'd say you're mixing two different thoughts from the other trhead.

add washers to keep the long bolts *or* switch to short bolts to "squeeze" the gasket better. but from what I can tell they're the same width so it doesn't matter. unless you go with the more expensive felpro gasket, which I don't have and can't measure.

And from what I can tell, I still have a "small" drip coming from the pulley side. It certainly can't be as bad as it was for me before I changed it though...

[rotinaj13]

I was just looking down this thread because I did my gasket in the winter and not one bit of problems but I found a very helpful way of doing it. Between the gasket and the pan you put a layer of 3m weatherstrip adhesive and let it cure, between the gasket and engine use great stuff in the caulking tube. Worked great no leaks!! I am about to use the same trick on my transmission pan gasket.