oil pan gasket

blank · 11-03-2009, 03:29 PM

what is the best way to change the oil pan gasket without a motor lift all i have is a big ass floor jack some people say i can jack the motor up with the harmonic balancer but i don't know if i trust that

my1994z28 · 11-03-2009, 03:37 PM

I would not trust lifting the engine up by the balancer.Too many bad things could happen.Is there a place by you where you can rent a hoist?

ShowNoMercy · 11-03-2009, 03:46 PM

Get the car up in the air, your gonna be under there a while, all the room you can get will help.

Have a friend lend a hand its not fun. Slowly lift the engine up by the hub, and remove both engine mounts. Then take out all the oil pan bolts, and don't forget the ones under the TC shield. I just snaked the old gasket out, and then snaked the new one in by stretching it around the pan and then popping it in place. So the pan did not need to come all the way out.

Take your time.

JAKEJR · 11-03-2009, 03:49 PM

On a Vette the oil pan gasket can be changed without jacking the engine, but on a 'F' body, etc., I don't have any personal experience.

On one of the eight Forums I visit, I recall reading, recently, someone posted on how he changed his oil pan gasket without jacking up the engine but unfortunately, I don't remember which Forum it was on. If you do a search you can probably find it.

I do recall reading how one guy posted that he broke his crank by lifting the engine by the damper. However, in his case, the car was raised on a hoist then the engine was jacked by placing the jack under the damper. He forgot to remove the jack before lowering the car and it broke the crank.

Bottom line is I wouldn't use the damper to raise the engine either. You can rent a engine hoist (cherry picker) pretty inexpensively.

Jake

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Nickv96 · 11-03-2009, 03:55 PM

I took my pan completely out by jacking up on the hub removing the motor mount bolts and jacking it up roughly 3 inches. Then you can get the pan out zip tie the new gasket to the pan in a few spots and then cut em once you have the pan up in there made it alot easier for me.

sweetbmxrider · 11-03-2009, 04:39 PM

zip ties is a pretty good idea, never thought of that.

if its an auto, the pan can't be completely removed with just the engine lifted. the k member would have to be lowered some.

Nickv96 · 11-03-2009, 04:56 PM

I'm an A4 car and you can drop it out without dropping the K member I promise. just did an oil pump swap because my dumb ass put a high volume pump on my brand new engine and thats a big no no if your running the stock pan. do a search on the site plenty of posts on it

sweetbmxrider · 11-03-2009, 07:32 PM

hmmmm i was never able to take mine completely off and i know others who couldn't too. weird.

juggalotus · 11-03-2009, 11:28 PM

My uncle took his pan off by jacking motor by the crank it won't hurt it if you don't leave the motor jacked up for a long time

Nickv96 · 11-04-2009, 08:48 AM

Its kinda tricky but can be done, I had to rotate my engine a bit because the front of the pan would hit the crankshaft. After that it dropped down until the back of the pan hit the starter ring gear I had to pull down on the pan quite hard and it barely slipped by at that point.