Man, I can't catch a break lately with my car. First, broken timing chain, then clutch goes out, motor mounts, and now the damn oil pan gasket blows out. It only has 4K miles on it. WTF?? I guess maybe I got a hold of an old one? or a defective one? and finally decided to let go. So the car is back up on jack stands.



Is there a difference in gasket quality between original Porsche and aftermarket?

Any opinions why this sucker blew will be most welcomed.


Thanks!

 

crankscase shouldn't be able to get pressurized enough to blow out a oil pan gasket, how is your crankcase breather?

 

i've heard that it can fail pretty quickly if it isn't installed properly. torque patterns and such. but i've yet to do one myself and haven't look into it too heavily. so take this for what it's worth. good luck with that though.

 

Crankcase breather is fine. No blockage at the oil seperator and has a new hose going to the throttle body.

Any of you turbo guys have any ideas??

 

I guess the question is, how did you seal it last time, and with what? I know there are compounds that should be used, and shouldnt be used, etc, though it seems like you have too much crankcase pressure to blow out the seal like that.

 

There was a great thread on this over on the Turbo section of the 944 board. Try a search and see what turns up.

 

Trace the source of oil carefully. My 968 appeared to have a pan gasket leak, but turned out to be front crank seal and lower balance shaft seal. With this age, expect any of the seals to start to give up.

If it IS the pan gasket, it's a lot of labor to R&R. Typically, you would want to do a PM on the rod bearings while you're in there ($50+ in parts and plastigauge).

 

Dave,
It is definitely the gasket. You can see the bolt bushing where the gasket is torn.
Rod bearings and new gasket were done about 4k miles ago. That's why I'm pissed this is happening.

 

Contact MySwiss, they make a product for stopping that problem. It is possible and likely that the bolts were overtightened they take a whopping 6 ft/lbs.
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Albert,

I just did my oil pan gasket. It's a PITA with the egine in the car. I don't really have any suggestions other than use clark's garage's instructions and dig in.

 

Torque the pan gaskets in sequence, using three-stage, low-torque 1/4-turn increments. Final 1/4 turn should be at 7ft/lbs. Using this time-consuming and tedious method- the pan bolts should seat evenly, up to the embedded bolt spacers in the pan gasket. Additional sealing not necessary, if the outer four corner bolts receive that extra 1/8 turn- starting at the rear, alternating cross-diagonally towards front bolts. A 16-year Porsche wrenchhead taught me this trick. It should have easily worked on my rebuild, but I bottomed-out several bolts along the pan length, with incorrectly-sized 10mm head bolts. The wrong bolts should have been used where the susceptible pan corners are.

I'll learn someday!

 

Matt,

Thanks, already sent MySwiss a PM.

 

NP, when you do it with the engine in have some friends over, you will need all of their hands to hold it up!
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One of the hardest parts is to ensure that the mating surfaces stay perfect clean at all times when installing he oil-pan gasket. Oil tend to drop down from the block and sit on the gasket surface. So you have to wipe it down with acetone and reach up into the block as far as possible.

Then you also have to scrape off all remnants of the old gasket with a razor blade on both surfaces. WIpe down again with acetone. Wipe off the oil-pick up tube as well.

When you're installing, put the gasket on the pan first with a couple of bolts through the middle (hold bolts on with duct tape). Make sure you do not touch the gasket to ANYTHING when installing it. Trick to getting the baffle past the pickup tube is to hold the pan angled down on the driver's side, about 40-50 degrees. Move it up on the passenger side of the car such that the top of the pan is about 0.5" lower than the block. Slide the pan sideways until it's underneath the block, the pickup will go into the baffle. Then raise the driver's side into position underneath the block. Install two center bolts to hold the pan in place. Then gently install the rest of the bolts and torque in 4-5 sequences (3 times is too quick).

 

Thanks, Danno. I've already done this job once with the engine in. I think I only used a two pass method when torquing. I will use more steps this go around.

It's just a PITA having to fix something that is broken...OTOH mods are always fun.