EuroDriver
15+ Year Contributor
- 86
- 9
- Aug 3, 2007
-
Dade City,
Florida
Yes, if you have taken interest in this thread.. You read it right. My brother-in-law and I managed to detonate the oil pan off during a not-so-routine gasket replacement. It hurt... 
First let me you guys know that the ORIGINAL reason was to change the crankshaft seal. I had oil leaking from somewhere and I did a little bit of reading about it. It seemed like a lot of oil and it's impossible to see without the timing belt covers and pulleys off. I made an educated guess.. crankshaft seal. I knew the pain of dismantling the car because I had already replaced all the belts.
I accepted my fate and bought the part and dismantled it. Along the way, we noticed that the oil was not coming from that seal at all. After we cleared up the timing belt. We identified that the two cam seals were broken. There was the leak.
We figured since we were already doing 3 seals, screw it... let's do the pan too. No leaks! This way I can safely build my engine.
Well the pan was "sealed" on to the engine with that industrial strength mitsu-liquid gasket. I was the first to pop this cherry. Oil pan empty, we loosened all the bolts and attempted to gently knock the pan off. We all know that it couldn't have been that easy... after all, I was replacing a semi-good gasket.
We decided to use a torch to heat up the gasket into releasing...
Before we did that, we cleaned the engine face. YUP, brake cleaner. Like most of you, I like to clean as I dismantle and assemble. Makes it easier to find leaks in the future and now. What we didn't realize, was that the removed crankshaft seal left a nice "reservoir" for the brake cleaner. The crank seal seats inside it usually.
Here's when shit hit the fan..
Everything clean, I start to take the torch to the oil pan. Yeah.. if you've been following this so far.. it ignited. It looked like an oil fire because of it's slow creep. We both thought that the brake cleaner was gone and dry.. EXCEPT, WE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE RESERVOIR. (located by the crank shaft.)
"Hey, man.. I don't think this was a good idea"
"Why, what happened?"
"It caught fire, hurry man.. put it out!"
He proceeded to blow it out.. He managed to blow it into the reservoir of brake cleaner.
BOOM!
Flames shoot past him, engulfing half his face. (by the drivers rotor) The oil pan blew off with the detonation caused. (underneath) I got oil "shrapnel". Hot oil got me (underneath)
I will say that this was INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE if it was safe to reproduce.
I looked like i jumped on an oil grenade
and he looked dazed 
from the experience.
The down pipe held the pan in place. It got a small dent on the lip from flying off. Nothing major and we got the pan off in record time, by anyone's standards.
We continued... still not together... parts..
I will post pics, if I got any good ones. Sorry I won't have any pics pf the explosion aftermath.
First let me you guys know that the ORIGINAL reason was to change the crankshaft seal. I had oil leaking from somewhere and I did a little bit of reading about it. It seemed like a lot of oil and it's impossible to see without the timing belt covers and pulleys off. I made an educated guess.. crankshaft seal. I knew the pain of dismantling the car because I had already replaced all the belts.
I accepted my fate and bought the part and dismantled it. Along the way, we noticed that the oil was not coming from that seal at all. After we cleared up the timing belt. We identified that the two cam seals were broken. There was the leak.
We figured since we were already doing 3 seals, screw it... let's do the pan too. No leaks! This way I can safely build my engine.
Well the pan was "sealed" on to the engine with that industrial strength mitsu-liquid gasket. I was the first to pop this cherry. Oil pan empty, we loosened all the bolts and attempted to gently knock the pan off. We all know that it couldn't have been that easy... after all, I was replacing a semi-good gasket.
We decided to use a torch to heat up the gasket into releasing...
Before we did that, we cleaned the engine face. YUP, brake cleaner. Like most of you, I like to clean as I dismantle and assemble. Makes it easier to find leaks in the future and now. What we didn't realize, was that the removed crankshaft seal left a nice "reservoir" for the brake cleaner. The crank seal seats inside it usually.
Here's when shit hit the fan..
Everything clean, I start to take the torch to the oil pan. Yeah.. if you've been following this so far.. it ignited. It looked like an oil fire because of it's slow creep. We both thought that the brake cleaner was gone and dry.. EXCEPT, WE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE RESERVOIR. (located by the crank shaft.)
"Hey, man.. I don't think this was a good idea"
"Why, what happened?"
"It caught fire, hurry man.. put it out!"
He proceeded to blow it out.. He managed to blow it into the reservoir of brake cleaner.
BOOM!
Flames shoot past him, engulfing half his face. (by the drivers rotor) The oil pan blew off with the detonation caused. (underneath) I got oil "shrapnel". Hot oil got me (underneath)
I will say that this was INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE if it was safe to reproduce.
I looked like i jumped on an oil grenade
and he looked dazed from the experience. The down pipe held the pan in place. It got a small dent on the lip from flying off. Nothing major and we got the pan off in record time, by anyone's standards.
We continued... still not together... parts..
I will post pics, if I got any good ones. Sorry I won't have any pics pf the explosion aftermath.
sounds possible I guess... My internals are immaculate but it won't hurt to check.
Made me giggle.
, i'd hate to see that color under my valve cover.
