Oil Pan

[DarkKnight]

Hey mang's. As some of you know i have a oil leak tru the oil pan plug getting very messy now as it's leaking about a qt - 2 qts a weak...

And i know i have asked it agine. But i thought i would ask one more time. ( Maybey someone new knows a better way of doing it? who knows )

What are all the ways of changing our oil pans?

What would be a good way of fixing the leak? it's a over size self taped plug in it atm.

And i got a new question for you mangs. On my oil pan plug the grommet is not rubber its hard plastic. could this be what is causing my trouble as it dosent want to go all the way up and when it goes as far as it can and you turn it it will drop back down./..

[DuceAnAHalf]

you mean the seal for the drain plug is hard plastic? my canton pan uses copper washers, so the hard nylon ones will work to seal it also.

[86VickyLX]

Hey mang's. As some of you know i have a oil leak tru the oil pan plug getting very messy now as it's leaking about a qt - 2 qts a weak...

And i know i have asked it agine. But i thought i would ask one more time. ( Maybey someone new knows a better way of doing it? who knows )

What are all the ways of changing our oil pans?

What would be a good way of fixing the leak? it's a over size self taped plug in it atm.

And i got a new question for you mangs. On my oil pan plug the grommet is not rubber its hard plastic. could this be what is causing my trouble as it dosent want to go all the way up and when it goes as far as it can and you turn it it will drop back down./..

I don't think it's the oil pan you have to replace.

Make sure your plug isn't in crooked, also, it shouldn't be able to turn when it's all the way up against the pan. If it hust spins, it's stripped and needs to be replaced. The plastic/nylon washer is fine as long as it's not broken. On my original engine, one of the washer's broke when I removed the plugs for the first time. So you can just go to your local parts store or hardware store and get another washer like that for about 50 cents. It's a lot cheaper and easier to just get the next size oversized plug to take car of the leaking.

If you are going to replace the pan, here's how I did it. The way I did it to remove the oil pan, was I had to remove the motor mounts, remove the fan and fan shroud (if you have the original equiptment), Remove the radiator, tranny coolant lines from it, and it's hoses, I had to remove the upper intake (EFI) as well. Not sure if you would have to remove the carb or not. Remove the hood, you will need some help with that. I removed the distributor because I had to replace the oilpump, and the timing wasn't set. Anyway, once you have disconnected everything that's in the way of the engine, you can lift the engine with an engine hoist or a comealong if you have something strong enough to pull on the engine to hoist it up. Get the engine up as far as it will go without it picking up the car with it. We also used a hydraulic jack and a block of wood to push up the tranny as well, so we could get all of the room we could get. Once that's done, you remove the wire on the oil pump (for the check oil light) and remove the bolts. you need to slide the oil pan towards the front of the car, so you can remove the oil pump. Yeah, you need to remove the oil pump or you won't be able to remove the pan. That is held to the block by two bolts, and connected to the screen with two bolts also, and a nut on one of the crankshaft bolts. Once you have that apart and down, you can remove it from inside the pan. Now you can attempt to slide the pan out through the front of the car. You should be able to clear the crossmember under the oil pan with some manuvering. If the tranny coolant lines get in your way, tie them up, out of the way. Slide the pan towards the front of the car, since you removed the radiator, you can go farther than I could (I left the radiator in). You should be able to pull it forward enough that you will clear the cross member. You will have an easier time if you clean all that shit on the pan, the frame, and everywhere else the pan will come into contact with, making the pan easier to remove and install. It should come out then. If not, hoist the engine up a little more.

Clean the gasket surfaces.

Since you got the oil pump out, you can buy a new one if you feel like it. It'll be easy, just match the old pump with the new one. You can get a new oil pump distributor shaft, since the distributor turns the oil pump. It's all out so why not replace it? Especially if your engine has good oil pressure or if it's knocking. Reuse your screen part though. When putting the pan back in, you need to have the oil pump in the pan when you go to put the pump up.
As for a gasket I used that one piece rubber gasket that everyone recommends. It works great.

[mrltd]

could this be what is causing my trouble as it dosent want to go all the way up and when it goes as far as it can and you turn it it will drop back down

Sounds like the pan is fubared. If the plug goes in the pops back out it's NOT gonna seal. Get a new pan. 2 qts a week? great for the environment there....

[cld783]

exactly why i dont overtorque my pan plugs. its a bitch changing out the pan.

[1987cp]

+1 on both the fubaredness and overtorqueing. One friend of mine changes his own oil for the sole reason that he doesn't want some moron grease monkey stripping the drain holes.

For stopgap repairs short of yanking the engine and replacing the pan - there are sometimes self-tapping oversized plugs you can buy, but since the threaded bit is just a piece of stamped steel that's tack-welded to the inside of the pan, there's a limit to how much bigger you can go. You can always get one of those goofy molly-like plugs that have a thingy that goes into the hole and a big piece of rubber that mostly seals the outside. One possibly more helpful idea I've had that could be performed on the car is to drill and tap a bit of steel plate of sufficient thickness and then weld or braze that over the original drain hole. Of course, t'd be difficult to get the area really clean - maybe drain the pan thoroughly with the car on the ground and then raise the front of the car so that the majority of residual oil in the front sump runs away from the drain hole and wait a day or so before cleaning with brake cleaner and getting on with it?

[packman]

Yeah somebody used an air impact on my ma's oil pan as the front sump drain plug has been stripped. I have been contemplating a pan swap too. Just haven't worked up the courage to take it all apart and do it. If I were to change pans I would get the Milodon 7 qt. pan, matching pickup, and a high volume Melling oil pump.


Packman

[1987cp]

High-volume oil pump is totally unnecessary to keep a stock engine alive, as is a fancy racing oilpan. A good used stock pan will be just fine.

[packman]

In my case I would be preparing for an engine swap with the Milodon pan and pump. Though in DKs case, a Ford Racing chrome 5 qt pan would be nice and I think has the stock parameters.


Packman

[DarkKnight]

Thats just the thing. I dont plan on keeping that same power plant for to long... Im wanting to get a sploder motor sometime within the next year or so. and teh tranny to go behind it.

But like has been mentioned this aint good for the environment. Ugha. there is a tripple size plug for it dont think there is a tripple size self taping plug however... I got one. a whille back i coldent get it to go in I even tried a air wrench still no good.

Thing been like that since i bought it it just keeps getting worse and worse and is a problem waiting to happen imo.

Thanks guys for all the input

[1987cp]

In my case I would be preparing for an engine swap with the Milodon pan and pump. Though in DKs case, a Ford Racing chrome 5 qt pan would be nice and I think has the stock parameters.


Packman

hehe - I still really like the blasted and repainted stock pans I have on my engines.

[packman]

I like the idea of burning some ants with the chrome pan; if I could get some sunlight under there lol.


Packman

[mrltd]

just slather a buncha JB weld on it.... I actually had some fucking retards come in with a smashed oil pan on a camaro come in for an oil change. I denied it due to the damage. Those morons came back a couple weeks later with the whole drainplug area covered with jb weld. And wanted me to change the oil. I was like "uh how?"

[DarkKnight]

other then the plug driping. it has no other damage to it.. I tried JB weld one time...did shit and i wound up useing a chisel to take it off.

[1987cp]

Me too, I had absolutely zero luck fixing my pan with JB Weld as well. Definitely gonna try something better if I try it again ... annoyingly, I seem to have recycled my old pan ... would've been a good opportunity to try different ways to fix it.