has anyone changed oil pan gasket?

[toplessmustang]

i assume the oil pan gasket is leaking pretty bad, cause when i get on the gas hard i leave a cloud of smoke thats burning off my H pipe. i put in a new oil sending unit so i know its not coming from there. valve covers arent leaking and i put a new rear main seal in when i put in the 5 speed. i've had three people look at it and the only thing anyone comes up with is oil pan gasket. so main questions are, do i have to take one or both motor mounts loose and does anyone know of a walk through for this. thanks guys

 

[94GTLaserRC]

I know it's difficult..Subscribing!
RC

 

[86T-Top]

cause when i get on the gas hard i leave a cloud of smoke thats burning off my H pipe.

If its only happening when you floor it, it sounds more like your engine is burning oil, not leaking it. If it was oil burning off your h-pipe, it would burn once the pipe got hot and would not stop until the pipe cooled down, or ran out of oil to burn. I would have a friend drive behind you and watch your tail pipe for a cloud of oil (should be a blue color) when you floor it.

I am saying this, because I would hate to see you change your oil pan gasket for nothing, it is a major pain in the a$$.

Anyway to change the pan gasket, you need to unbolt both motor mounts and lift the motor. When I did mine I already had the tranny disconnected and lifted the motor as high as I could w/o disconnecting anything else. With everything still connected I was not able to get the motor high enough to get the pan out, so i had to snake the gasket in there. I highly recomend you use a Ford one peice gasket when you do this job.

Good Luck,

Mario

 

[WhiteDevil]

Why are u guys saying u have to lift the motor? U can unbolt the pan and drop it down about an inch onto the K member. I dropped my oil pan during my H/C/I to change my Cam and my gasket came off a little it was easy to slide back into place and bolt back up. It might be a little more of a pain but u could definitly slide the gasket past and bolt it up.

 

[86T-Top]

There are several reasons why you need to lift the motor.
1. You will not be able to get the one piece gasket in place with only 1" of cleareance. Remeber the crank and rods live inside the pan and you need to snake the gasket around them.
2. More than likely with that small amount of clearance (1") you will not get your gaskets to line up right and seal properly.
3. The only way I can see you doing it with 1" of clearance is if you used the 4 piece cork gasket. I would not use them, but you can use what you like.

But if you can do it your way with a one piece gasket and get the gasket to seat properly and not leak, more power to you.

Mario

 

[Car Nut]

Do you have oil leaking under your car when it is parked?

Mine had a very very small leak, but over time I ended up with a decent amount of oil. Once I got my car on a lift, I could see that the oil pan gasket was actually sticking out (kind of like a bad balancer). I got this replaced and no leaks at all. In my situation, I never had unusual smoke coming out of the exhaust.

 

[toplessmustang]

yes it leaks when its parked. youre right carnut, i could see the gasket squeezed out at the back drivers side. you can see where the oil is going under the car and all over the pipes. a friend of mine that works at a garage said to bring it up and we'd fix it, i just have to buy the beer.sounds like a sweet deal to me.

 

[DarkMesa8]

a friend of mine that works at a garage said to bring it up and we'd fix it, i just have to buy the beer.sounds like a sweet deal to me.

That sounds like the deal of a lifetime considering how much of a PITA it is to do it.

 

[1105]

HAHAHAHHHAHAA!!!

HAVE FUN! I changed out my pan since my old one had holes in it from a previous project and let me tell you... IT WAS A PITA! Lets see.. had to jack the engine up, oil pump had to come off, dust cover for the tranny should have came off but didnt, and I think theres 1 or 2 other things. Anyways have fun Your friend is probably going to be kicking himself in the ass once he gets started

 

[urban96]

HAHAHAHHHAHAA!!!

HAVE FUN! I changed out my pan since my old one had holes in it from a previous project and let me tell you... IT WAS A PITA! Lets see.. had to jack the engine up, oil pump had to come off, dust cover for the tranny should have came off but didnt, and I think theres 1 or 2 other things. Anyways have fun Your friend is probably going to be kicking himself in the ass once he gets started

hey whered you find a new pan? or did you use one for 93 and older (is there any difference?) mines kinda rusty and if i pull the motor when i do tranny/heads i wanna swap out pans

 

[5spd GT]

I'm starting to think my oil pan gasket is leaking as well? I wonder how much a mechanic would charge for something like that?

I get the oil on my hpipe as well and it leaves a nice trail of smoke behind me...

 

[1105]

Its about a 4 hour process to have a mechanic do it so be prepaired to pay a lot.

Urban, I used summits steel pan for the 87-93 mustangs. It fits but you have to do some modifications to it with a hammer or other tool of your choice. That was probably the part that took me the longest.

Also, for anyone else who does this make sure the oil punp is back in the pan before you put it back on the car or else you'll have one hell of a time trying to get it back in.

 

[tderrick]

Also don't forget, it could be our old friend, the rear main seal. If it's leaking at the back of the pan, it's hard to tell which one it is. Either way, it's a pain.

good luck

 

[5spd GT]

Yeah I have had problems with the rear main seal which I think is leaking as well. But I have oil on the frontside of the flexplate...and oil around the oil pan gasket on the back side on both sides...it is messy...

 

[Car Nut]

I was worried about the rear main seal, too. BUT, when I saw the seal sticking out of the oil pan there was no doubt that the gasket was at least part of my problem. Turned out it was the only problem.

I'll admit that I didn't do this myself. A former mechanic at Dugan's Racing now has his own shop so I had him do it. Didn't cost much, plus I had him do a few other things while he was at it. Sure is nice to have a mechanic who specializes in stangs. No worries at all, plus I'm helping to keep him in business.