Kool

Oh yeah and my clutch master cylinder just puked onto my floorboard.

What causes the oil pan gasket to blow out? I assume that my oil pan is under pressure. Is that from blow by? Or is something else wrong?

Ski

usually blow by but make sure your hose isn't getting pinched, also if the hose off the AOS is the original one, it can swell on the inside with time and not allow as much flow as when new.

Kool

The car has almost 170k on it. Now that I think about it I do think that the hose is pinched.

I know that Lindsey racing sells a crankcase breather and that there seems to be some debate on whether or not that is a good alternative.

I think that once I get the Acura back together I am going to rebuild this thing.

Zero10

If you want to check for crankcase pressure then remove the oil filler cap while the car is running and place a rubber glove over the opening. It will tell you very quickly whether there is pressure or (like there should be) vacuum.

If not torqued down properly the oil pan gasket can bulge, or sometimes as it deteriorates with age this can happen as well.

For the clutch master cylinder, it is usually advised to change the master/slave as a pair since bleeding the system is such a PITA.

pk951

You might want to try the brackets sold by My Swiss will stop the gasket from bulging out.

http://us.europartsetc.com

Doyle623

Is it normal to have a few small bulges when installing a new oil pan gasket? I have one side smooth and the other with a few small bulges. Not sure if this will seal or not

Eric_Oz_S2

No - not really normal to have bulges - perhaps up to 1mm displacement if you would call that a bulge? Mine was pretty straight. It actually had to be stretched a little between holes (ie the hole centres are very slightly less on the gasket than the whole centres of the crankcase - so it puts it in a little tension (at least mine did).

fortysixandtwo

The oil pan gasket will blow out due to excessive crank case pressure, improper installation or gasket deterioration.
Under normal conditions, the crankcase will have some pressure, from blow by. An increase in crank case pressure can be due to either an increase in blow by, a restriction in the ventilation, or a combination of both. The rings can be tested by doing a compression or leak down test. Other indicators, of excessive blow by, would be increased oil consumption, oil in the intake tract, carbon buildup in the intake tract, smoking exhaust. These are mostly signs of blow by, but can be caused by other, unrelated problems, so they may or may not exist, and in any combination.

The ventilation can be checked visually, but the hoses must be removed to properly inspect them.

For the gasket installation. With the exception of some RTV at the lower block transition, put it on dry with both surfaces perfectly clean, don't let it squeeze out while torquing the bolts (with a properly set torque wrench), and go over all the bolts about 4 times to ensure proper torque has be reached on all the fasteners, as they will loose torque when their neighboring bolt has torque applied.
Buttering it up with sealant or installing retaining strips are just bandaids to doing it wrong. Porsche managed to assemble about 170,000 of these engines without their use.