oil pan sealing question

[jm1080]

Hey guys, have a little problem here, if it is a problem..

This is the second time I pulled the pan. This time I sealed it properly cleaned off old rtv from block and pan (took forever), then I added bead of grey rtv on pan and installed with screws hand tightened. Today I wake up and go check it out to tighten the bolts, I see a bit of oil on 2 of the bolts that seeped passed the bolts..

I noticed I was able to tighten the bolts by hand again..Now is this all normal?!?!?! I'm so scared, took me a whole day yesterday to do pan for the second time..So I just tightened them with a ratchet and cleaned off the oil. I hope this is normal as I do not plan on redoing this again, been without a car for almost a month and is my dd.

 

[Calan]

A couple of tips on the oil pan:

1. Make sure the flange isn't bent. When you tighten it up, the bolts have a way of flattening out the flange around the sealing groove and causing it to be wavy in some areas. You can use a rubber mallet and screwdriver or something similar to carefully knock down any high points.

2. After that ^^^, I usually lightly "sand" it by running it over a flat smooth area of concrete in the garage. This helps level out the flange and remove the high spots around the bolt holes.

3. After running a bead of RTV completely around the inside edge of the pan, go back and add a little extra around the bolt holes at the same thickness.

4. let the RTV set for a few minutes before bolting up the pan. This lets it form a thin skin, and will aid in sealing.

5. Be sure to tighten the bolts evenly in the proper sequence. I usually alternate sides while skipping every other bolt until it is snugged up. or better yet, follow the sequence in the FSM.

The bolts will loosen a little bit during heating cycles. Just check them a couple of times after driving the car a few days...and re-tighten as needed. (Same thing with the valve cover and any other lightly-torqued bolts).

 

[SrKegler]

How much oil did you add!!! From my understanding of your post, you put the bolts in finger tight, waited overnite to torque them down and saw the oil drips. The only way oil should have leaked out there is overfilling or running the engine. Doubt if you started the engine before you tightened the bolts.

 

[DSM_PWR]

Once you've RTV'd and bolted down the oil pan... make sure you let it sit a whiles before you throw oil back in... the weight of the oil "can" mess around with it... had that problem with the transmission oil filter gasket

Overtightening the 1st time can easily lead to leaks... especially since the gaskets are known to squish out when the bolts have been overtightened.. so carefull with that

 

[jm1080]

I didn't add any oil..Oil was drained 2 days before hand. For some reason it was seaping oil near timing belt area when pan was off, but it was very little and I cleaned surface well before installing, Not sure why oil would still seap past the gasket...I just tightened the bolts down in the morning, which was like 6hrs ago and do not see any oil leak anymore. Is this normal?

 

[floader]

I didn't add any oil..Oil was drained 2 days before hand. For some reason it was seaping oil near timing belt area when pan was off, but it was very little and I cleaned surface well before installing, Not sure why oil would still seap past the gasket...I just tightened the bolts down in the morning, which was like 6hrs ago and do not see any oil leak anymore. Is this normal?

If you have no oil in the car, its probably running out of the timing cover/OFH area where its been sitting for a while.... a whole other problem on its own

 

[jm1080]

If you have no oil in the car, its probably running out of the timing cover/OFH area where its been sitting for a while.... a whole other problem on its own

Hmmm, at first it didn't leak (1 day before), then when I was taking gasket off the second time I dropped pan, I took some out near timing area, nothing leaked until couple hours later. Is there a gasket around there somewhere I do not know about? Before doing this whole job, I did notice a bunch of dried up goo under timing area, but it never really leaked. What could this be?

 

[EclipticalGS]

There are two (2) oil pan bolts that are longer than the rest, these need to go into the front case or else a leak could happen, bolt/block can get stripped from the longer bolt bottoming out. Also check your PCV valve make sure your not sending boost into the pan. Thats all I can say about oil pan leaks.

 

[romeen]

There are two (2) oil pan bolts that are longer than the rest, these need to go into the front case or else a leak could happen, bolt/block can get stripped from the longer bolt bottoming out. Also check your PCV valve make sure your not sending boost into the pan. Thats all I can say about oil pan leaks.

Actually there are 2 bolts that are SHORTER than the rest. One goes under the area of the crank pulley and the other one goes under the area of the oil pump sprocket (next bolt hole towards the back of the car). If you install the regular length bolts in these spots the tip of the bolt will rub on the t-belt putting a groove in it and can potentially lead to failure.

 

[jm1080]

Actually there are 2 bolts that are SHORTER than the rest. One goes under the area of the crank pulley and the other one goes under the area of the oil pump sprocket (next bolt hole towards the back of the car). If you install the regular length bolts in these spots the tip of the bolt will rub on the t-belt putting a groove in it and can potentially lead to failure.

Yea I saw 2 short ones. Some of the bolts I tried to reuse would not thread for some reason, so I just used shorter bolts that I had. I hope shorter bolts are better than the longer bolts

Well I hope it does not leak. Still putting everything back together...Entire day of work..Pan looks good so far stopped the leaking once I tightened the bolts down in the morning. I hope it does not leak when I start the car, I will start it tomorrow as I want it to dry up more overnight

 

[EclipticalGS]

Actually there are 2 bolts that are SHORTER than the rest. One goes under the area of the crank pulley and the other one goes under the area of the oil pump sprocket (next bolt hole towards the back of the car). If you install the regular length bolts in these spots the tip of the bolt will rub on the t-belt putting a groove in it and can potentially lead to failure.

Thanks for that correction.

 

[Jiggalude]

Are you waiting for the RTV silicone to seal? I redid my oil pan on my stealth, and still haven't put oil in it yet, cause I want to make sure it seals nice and tight.

 

[kimcheefists]

Hmmm, at first it didn't leak (1 day before), then when I was taking gasket off the second time I dropped pan, I took some out near timing area, nothing leaked until couple hours later. Is there a gasket around there somewhere I do not know about? Before doing this whole job, I did notice a bunch of dried up goo under timing area, but it never really leaked. What could this be?

There's actually 2 places I know of that commonly leaks oil which leads people to believe it's the oil pan gasket. The first is the front case (oil pump) gasket and the second is the crankshaft seal. There's also the oil pump seal (not gasket) within the front case that seals the oil pump pulley. However, that usually doesn't leak.