Replaced the oil pan gasket 4 months ago and it was not fun at all and took me a long as time.

I did everything as best as I could, used a torque wrench, numbered all the holes and followed the torque sequence with an inch pound torque wrench. used a new gaset from the dealer and used permatex the right stuff for imports (high torque applications) to dress the pan gasket.

it looked great until last night I got under the car to tension my v belts and I see this..... the rest of teh pan gasket still looks good but after 4 months this area her has ripped and is bulging out.

you can see from teh pic that it split where the botl goes through and one side is bulging out.

so is this eventually going to get worse and I"ll have oil gushing out everywher?

I"m pretty nervous as it looks like only a tiny bit of rubber is left sealing that part and if it split or rips oil is just going to pour out.

any way to fix it without replacing the pan gasket? I"m thinking of putting some permatex right stuff sealant in that part where ther is an empty space now from the gasket ripping and bulging out.

 

I"m worried the tear is going to keep on getting bigger and bigger and running all accross and whathever little rubber is left around bolt 7 is just going to fall apart eventually.

I really don't want to do this agian......

 

Did this happen after or before the tickets? Just kidding!

If you do happen to do this again, isn't there a place that sells kits to keep this from happening? KLA industries?

In all seriousness, how long did it take you to do this?

 

IMO your going to need a new gasket. I had a similar experience when I did my first oil pan gasket many years ago, I tried to push the gasket back in and put some sealant on it but nothing worked and it eventually started pouring oil everywhere. Mine just U-ed out between the bolts, but yours must have torn on the inside of the spacer. You could probably buy some time with some sealant considering its on the higher side of the oil pan, but I would bet its going to have to go under the knife again.

 

it took me like from june to august lol

but that was because I worked everyday and had to wait forever for parts, plus I did other things like preplace the motor mounts, control arm and oil pump had to be resealed.

this time it would be a paint to pull the pan off as it's pretty much glued to the engine with all that gasket maker, I did not plan on every doing it again.

plus you have to get an allignment which cost me 200 bucks I think.

so do I have to do it again for sure or can that gasket still last another few years lol.

I'm thinking of just injecting some of the gasket maker into that empty space to help hold it but I'm thinking the rip is going to just keep on getting bigger and bigger and the rest of it will fall apart until it leaks.

they should seriously make a better, stronger, more flexible gasket than that.

 

I won't have time to tear it apart till this may and it is my daily driver.

I only have time in the summer so if I don't do it this summer then it won't be till next summer after that.

I really don't want to do it again unless it's going to leak for sure it's not leaking a drop right now......

yeah you can see it split in two where teh bolt goes through.

problem is if I do this job it takes so long that I'll have to buy another beater to get around in like last time, not fun at all.

 

thing is the other half of that torn part is still behind the bolt sealing but it's pretty thin rubber so the heat and pressure might eventually make it split or crack.

 

i dropped my cross member as one piece and didnt get an alignment, it was fine. I also put the gasket on dry. I always put them on dry if its a machined surface, maybe im the only one who does that?

 

so do i have to replace this gasket for sure?? anyone know.

I don't want to do it again unless absolutely necessary.

also should i trie and loosen the bolt and push the gasket in with sealant? or should I just put sealant into the space with a caulking gun.

and yes this is the high side of the oil pan.

 

Yeah on an NA this is not that bad of a process. You can just unbolt the 4 13mm strut mount nuts, the castor blocks, and then the cross-member and be pulling the pan in no time at all. Now that I think about it I don't see why it couldn't be done in a weekend or less.

If it were me I would replace the gasket, but thats because I hate patching problems instead of just fixing them. I was stating before that since it is on the high side of the pan, the leaking probably won't be as bad and you may be able to doctor it for now.

 

well it was a real pain getting the motor moutns to fit again I really don't want to go through that again. the whole crossmember has to come out, tire rod ends I removed.

power steering lines, steering joint,

also this time the gasket and pan will have to be pried off as I used the permatex right stuff on both sides of the gasket and it is strong stuff so it willbe glued on tight.

also doesn't the timing belt / cover have to come off? maybe not last time the oil pump was also resealed. actually it was my oil pump gushing oil last time, the oil pan was just leaking a very tiny amount of oil so I thought I should just rplace that too.

the old gasket was bugling out in spots as well but it was still not leaking a noticable amount of oil.

 

because this is such a not so fun job to do I think I'll just use a caulking gun and try and gets some gasket maker in there around teh ouside of the seal that is bulgin out so maybe it can stop it from tearing more.

my rear balance shaft seals were leaking a bit 2 years ago and I just cleaned the ouside with brake clean and put some high temp gasket maker around the ouside of them and they haven't leaked since then and it's holding up still

yeah I like to properly fix things aswell but I changed the pan gasket just 4 months ago and it's not really a weekend job for me takes a long *** time taking everything apart and putting it back.

 

If you drop the whole front end then you don't have to remove the tie rods. No, the timing belt cover etc. can stay on.

 

on another topic, how much does it cost to buy a fully rebuild stock N/A engine with new clutch, gaskets etc?

thing is if I replace the pan gasket again another few months another seal will start leaking or something else will break, getting tired of constanly working on it. so much easier to just drop a professionally rebuild engine in and forget about repairs for a long time.

guessing you can't get a rebuild engine for around 3 grand. That would be my limit.

 

no I remove the tire rod end (unscrew it) rather than remove it from teh steering knuckle. one of them was stuck in the steering knucle and I could not get it out last time, spent a whole day trying but it's stuck in there good.