quickster
Full Access Member
Anyone replace an oil pan in their truck? Do I need to lift the motor and if I do, anything else need to be disconnected besides the mounts? Thanks
oil pan replacement
- Thread starter quickster
- Start date
The oil pump needs to be removed and dropped in the pan before the pan can be removed. Installation is the reverse, easier said than done.
i would not attempt this with the engine in the truck.
quickster
Full Access Member
sheeeit. might have to wait till spring. Pin hole in the pan. Anything to temp plug it up till I can get to it? I'd put a self tapper with a rubber washer in the hole but I know I'll get metal in the pan. Anything surface mount?
drain the oil, depending where the pin hole is, jack the truck up to keep the little bit of oil out of the area.
CLEAN THE METAL! (bright shiny metal, no paint) use air to blow through any residual oil, and zap it with a mig.
ive done this a few times, worked for me everytime.. it may work for you, if you get your settings right! and its not a rust hole lol
other than that, you can try some of that gas tank repair epoxy putty?
i dont know about that one tho... just a thought
DUCT TAPE! hahahaha just kidding
CLEAN THE METAL! (bright shiny metal, no paint) use air to blow through any residual oil, and zap it with a mig.
ive done this a few times, worked for me everytime.. it may work for you, if you get your settings right! and its not a rust hole lol
other than that, you can try some of that gas tank repair epoxy putty?
i dont know about that one tho... just a thought
DUCT TAPE! hahahaha just kidding
when I worked at a ford store for a bit,,guy came in with leak. idiot guy that set up our shop things, told him new pan, and labor..........1200 clams!!!! I asked the bozo setup jerk, if I could weld it...he looked like deer in hdlghts...........go ahead!! I welded it with a oxy torch,,after I drained the oil...steel, not braze.....he was damn happy!!!! I wont do mig....bits of weld splatter may fly in pan, and I can control the torch waaaaaay good........I ended up welding about a 1 inch by three inch area that had ROTTED!!
PwrSmoke
Full Access Member
I dropped the pan on my '86 back in the '90s and it wasn't horrible. But that's the perspective of a person who made a career of working on some of the hardest-to-work-on cars in the worlds (such as Porsche). My exact recollection is not 100 % clear since this was back in the '90s, but I did it in my garage. The engine had to be jacked up (coolant drained, radiator hoses off, fan & fan shroud off) and wood blocks placed under between the chassis and the engine mounts. The turbo (rear mount on my Gen 1 Banks) was up against the firewall. Crossover pipe off. Flywheel housing cover off. Trans cooler lines carefully pushed out of the way. I don't remember dropping the oil pump but it sounds logical (wait to do it according to need). Clearance between the crossmember and the flywheel was microscopic IIRC. The hard part will be getting everything cleaned up, getting the gasket glued to the pan and not messing things up as you feed the pan back up. I may be dropping mine and reliving my former experience, since I put a nasty dent in my pan when a floorjack slipped recently. No leaks but it may interfere with draining the oil.
icanfixall
Official GMM hand model
There is a way to use JB Weld and make it stick too. Clean off the area to be patched with brakeclean. Make sure some gets thru the hole to help wash off the insides of the pan. No matter what. there is going to be oil in the pan even after draining it hot. Now the trick part. Set up a shop vac on the oil fill spout with what ever it tales to keep the hose on the spout. Duct tape comes to mind. Once the system is closed to say start the vacuum. Might want to leave the oil pan drain plug out but you need to maintain a few inches of vacuum on the inside of the oil pan. That keeps the oil from running out the hole and it sucks the JB Weld into the hole. JB makes all kinds of products. They even make a putty that forms and stays in place. If your looking at the oil pan see the bottom area where the drain is. Inside that area is the oil pump pick up screen. To be honest the idea of dropping the oil pan then the engine is still in the truck is a horrible job. The engine lifting plus the fan removal are way too much work. then reaching in to remove the oil pump AND the nut attached to the main bolt area is not an easy job. Our anatomy of our wrists and arms just really can't twist to grab the loose oil pump and get it back in place. If you do it once you will never do it again. BTW makes sure to never use a cork or rubber oil pan gasket. The oem gasket was RTV and that works. Its simple to use too. Why some gasket makers are selling oil pan gaskets is very disturbing to me. Many of those that have come to the forum after installing one are asking why they leak. Same answer. We don't use them.
Oil pan Pin hole(s).Drain the pan, let it set overnite with plug out. You can bet you'll have more in a short time in the deep part. I would clean it all off with a wire brush, powered or not, then sand it with 60 grit sandpaper to roughen it up. Get a small body repair kit with the fiberglass sheet, not with the fiberglass pads. Hookup the vacuum cleaner like icanfixall said so you pull a vacuum on it. After you apply the fiberglass and it's hardened, then smear some Bondo over it, couple of 1/8" thick layers. That'll fix it.
really?????
I did it,three times..in one week, to my brothers truck, till we had a certain problem solved.....
quickster
Full Access Member
Thanks for all the ideas. I could clean it up and give it a shot with the welder, but if I burn it through I'm screwed. I like the idea of putting vacuum in the motor and pull in some epoxy in to the hole. I think I will try that first and if it doesn't work try the mig. Don't think I'm pulling the motor anytime soon.
Funny thing is the pinhole is on the side of the pan about half way up on the deep side. No dents or anything. Must have gotten eaten up from the inside.
Funny thing is the pinhole is on the side of the pan about half way up on the deep side. No dents or anything. Must have gotten eaten up from the inside.
jim_22
Full Access Member
Epoxy putty.
yes really, i would not attempt to replace an oil pan with the engine in the truck.
i would pull the engine.
but, thats just me....
jaluhn83
Full Access Member
Doing the pan in the truck is possible, but a pain. I'm pretty sure you have to lift the engine but can't remember how far. Probably several inches, but not enough to have to disconnect anything with a NA truck - might have problems with a turbo. Then have to fight with the bolts, drop the pan down far enough to unbolt the oil pump and worm the whole mess out. Seems like it'd be a huge pain. Then putting it back you've got to do the opposite, but with the added headache of not messing up the gasket/RTV....
I would not try welding the pin hole. Too much chance of melting a hole in it, plus the difficulty of having oil soaked metal - no matter how well you clean the outside you can't clean the inside of the pan & hole. The stuff left in the hole could make it hard to get the metal to stick, and the oil on the inside will vaporize and cause some amount of internal pressure that will force gas out of the hole. Can partially relieve this by leaving the oil cap off, but still... I have also had issues with cracks welding on a pan. That was probably from the amount of heat/welding I was doing, but still.... too much chance of going from a pinhole to a big leak.
Also need to keep in mind the potential for an explosion welding a closed vessel with a flammable fluid inside... Unlikely, but it's possible.
I would just just a self tapping screw. If you drill the hole with a drill bit coated in grease the chips will stick to the bit and you can control where they go. Shouldn't get much in the pan anyway since it's going to pull chips towards the outside as you drill. Beyond that, the very small amount of metal that would likely get into the pan is highly unlikely to cause any problems. Most likely chips would get stopped by the suction screen and wash out with the next oil change. Even if they get stuck you'd have to put a ton of metal shavings in there to markedly plug the screen. Anything small enough to get sucked up will get filtered out by the oil filter (that's it's function after all). Granted, it would go through the pump & cooler, but anything small enough to go through the screen is too small to cause any problems there.
The only place where clean fluid is really critical in the engine is on the clean side of the filter - shavings/junk here could damage bearings, plug lifters, etc. But the pan is designed to have 'dirty' oil and it has the filter specifically to prevent anything from getting to where it can cause problems.
Bottom line, stick a self tapper with some good RTV in there and don't worry about it. Probably could go forever that way, though I'd keep an eye on it and want to replace/weld the pan eventually.
I would not try welding the pin hole. Too much chance of melting a hole in it, plus the difficulty of having oil soaked metal - no matter how well you clean the outside you can't clean the inside of the pan & hole. The stuff left in the hole could make it hard to get the metal to stick, and the oil on the inside will vaporize and cause some amount of internal pressure that will force gas out of the hole. Can partially relieve this by leaving the oil cap off, but still... I have also had issues with cracks welding on a pan. That was probably from the amount of heat/welding I was doing, but still.... too much chance of going from a pinhole to a big leak.
Also need to keep in mind the potential for an explosion welding a closed vessel with a flammable fluid inside... Unlikely, but it's possible.
I would just just a self tapping screw. If you drill the hole with a drill bit coated in grease the chips will stick to the bit and you can control where they go. Shouldn't get much in the pan anyway since it's going to pull chips towards the outside as you drill. Beyond that, the very small amount of metal that would likely get into the pan is highly unlikely to cause any problems. Most likely chips would get stopped by the suction screen and wash out with the next oil change. Even if they get stuck you'd have to put a ton of metal shavings in there to markedly plug the screen. Anything small enough to get sucked up will get filtered out by the oil filter (that's it's function after all). Granted, it would go through the pump & cooler, but anything small enough to go through the screen is too small to cause any problems there.
The only place where clean fluid is really critical in the engine is on the clean side of the filter - shavings/junk here could damage bearings, plug lifters, etc. But the pan is designed to have 'dirty' oil and it has the filter specifically to prevent anything from getting to where it can cause problems.
Bottom line, stick a self tapper with some good RTV in there and don't worry about it. Probably could go forever that way, though I'd keep an eye on it and want to replace/weld the pan eventually.
