Anyone ever STUDDED the oil pan?

[SnowBird]

I would like to stud the block for the oil pan and get away from all the bolts, I would imagine it could seal tighter will studs and nuts.

If anyone has done this could you please tell me the size of the studs used? Didnt know if there were any that had a little allen key in the head to make the install easier too.

 

[steve]

The seal comes from the RTV.
Studs can help with alignment of the pan as you initially put it on but they can also make it more difficult getting it off.

Check the existing bolts but I think they are 6mm and you can measure the depth of the holes with a caliper add the height of the nut plus a few mm for the pan, RTV and whatever for the total stud length.

 

[All_Boost16G]

Yeam agreed studs can help and hurt at the same time. I actually have studs/nuts of a hyundia car made for the hyundia valve cover. There great and easy to use, once you figure out how to get the valve cover on.

 

[GreenDemon95]

I've done it on my 420a oil pan worked out pretty well. I bought the studs for summit they came with allen keys on them

 

[97 4G63]

Why would you want to waste the time on doing this when the stock bolts do the same job??
Is there something i'm missing out on? gasket,RTV and stock bolts should be just fine.
Also if you do go whith the studs make sure you keep in mind that one of them has to be shorter right under the timing belt.

 

[All_Boost16G]

I think it would make it easier to line up the pan with studs.

 

[GreenDemon95]

Was missing a few oil pan bolts figured It'd be cool to try

 

[97 4G63]

If anybody does this mod let me know how it goes and if you have to use something smaller for the lower timing belt bolt/stud.

 

[knochgoon24]

Just get studs that are all the same length and grind down the one stud if it's too long. Problem solved.

 

[steve]

You don't need to make all of them studs, a couple are more than enough to align the pan while you put the other bolts in.

 

[SnowBird]

Ive just been having problems with the oil pan leaking on this car. On my last car I didnt use a gasket, just grey RTV and it held great with no leaks. Now on this one I used a gasket with RTV on both sides and it leaks like crazy.

How many of you run just RTV?

 

[steve]

How many of you run just RTV?

That's how every one of them left the factory.

The pan and block have to be clean, flat, and free of oil. The aftermarket equiv of the factory RTV is Permetex Ultra Grey. Just follow the instructions on the tube and you should be fine.

 

[Jeff99GS]

If you use studs for the oil pan good luck cleaning off the old gasket material on the block when it comes time to change it again. You'll have to clean around all the studs I dont think its worth it.

To get a better seal on the pan I like to run a bead of the RTV down, let it tack up for about 2-3 min then put it on with the bolts finger tight. Let it sit for an hour....Then torque them to 9 or 10 ft lbs.

Then I wait overnight before filling the engine with oil or running it.

 

[architechnik]

I would have to say for someone who's been under there quite a few times and tried to line it up, I think a couple removable studs would be a great idea. It's a PITA when trying to get the bolt in and you end up squeezing out half the RTV getting the thing to line up.

If they have allen ends then that would help in removing them to do any cleaning. It doesn't matter with the length for studs, it just means that it would take longer to put some tension on it. You won't want to tighten the studs all the way down anyway; back them out just a little (maybe a 1/4 turn) after putting them all the way in.

I'll check out summit now...

EDIT: Here's the link. Like everything Summit, they come in bulk, so just use the ones you need.
Moroso 38366 - Moroso Sport Compact Oil Pan Stud Kits - summitracing.com

 

[Defiant]

Make sure you have the short ones.

 

[SnowBird]

Cool, nice find on the link. Are those the actual ones I should buy in that link? I tried looking up the talon by year and make and it wasnt working. I just wanted like one in each corner to help line it up; to help not mess up the bead of RTV.

 

[romeen]

The last couple times that I removed/replaced the oil pan I put in three studs at corners to align the oil pan. It works great to get perfect alignment, no smearing of the RTV.

The hardware store actually calls them set screws since the entire length is threaded and they can be screwed in/out with an allen wrench. They are 6mm x 1.00.

After the pan was on and the other bolts were in I removed the studs and replaced with bolts just for the sake of uniformity. I am actually planning on switching to all studs with nylock nuts because the vibration from my solid motor mounts is causing various fasteners to loosen up a bit.

As far as removal of oil pan it's easy enough to remove the studs with the allen wrench so that you can get a putty knife in there.

As mentioned, be careful to use shorter studs under the crank and oil pump sprockets.

 

[turbosax2]

My brother and I bought 3 sets of these for the both of us. 3 sets has exactly enough studs for 2 oil pans and 2 valve covers. I haven't installed mine yet but we put the studs in for his oil pan and valve cover, they work fine.

 

[JusMX141]

I've done it before, but I only used (4) studs...one in each corner of the pan. The studs used were 6mm x 1.0 thread, around 25mm long.

I've found that using four studs makes installation of both the gasket and the pan much easier. The gasket doesn't try to wander, and you never have to worry about bolt alignment while you're holding the pan upward against the block with one hand.

Reasons you wouldn't want to use all studs:

- The pan itself needs very little torque to be tight, and there's a bolt hole every 2" or less on the pan. This isn't a cylinder head.
- Scraping old gasket material around studs has got to be the worst job in the world. If you have to remove all the studs to scrape anyway, you might as well use bolts.
- Pan removal. The studs will not allow you to "rock" the pan in order to break the seal when removing it.