mspiegle

The story of my car started back in nov/dev of '03. I had bought it for a killer deal from a former rennlister in florida. I didn't do a PPI or anything like that, but I got pretty lucky for the most part. The PO claimed that the original owner had the motor rebuilt, but that he wasn't supplied with any receipts for the work. I actually have the old service records that show <100 compression on at least 4 cyls. When I recieved the shark in stock form, a compression test was done and all but 1 cyl showed good compression. This may indicate that the motor was rebuilt, but maybe it wasn't done properly or possibly something else happened. By the info I have, it seems that the motor was rebuilt about 40K miles ago.

For as long as I can remember, my shark has had a bad oil leak. I would say 0.5 to 1.0 quarts per month. I kinda just assumed it was an oil pan issue, but was never sure. I didn't want to get into fixing it because that would mean lifting the engine, or removing the steering rack.

Recently, maybe a couple weeks ago, I replaced my leaking/patched radiator with a fresh devek unit. In the process, my oil cooler lines began to fall apart and leak. I replaced them with new ones, and in the process of removing the oil-pressure sender/filter and installing the new lines - I noticed one of the oil pan bolts was backed out about 1/2 inch. I just sat there with eyes wide-open not sure how such a thing could happen. I proceeded to tighten that bolt, then check the other bolts. NOT ONE OF THE BOLTS was fully snug. I would say they weren't even finger tight all the way. I torqued them down to about 10-15lbs per bolt (all the ones i could reach). After this, my oil leaking issues severely diminished. Now, overnight, i'll only have 2-3 very small drops (before I might of had 10-12 drops).

Sorry for the long post, but I believe this information may be important in figuring out what to do next. I know the oil pan gasket is a very touchy part... but I would love it if I could solve this leaking issue by just tightening the bolts another 5lbs or so. What do you guys think? From what I could see, the gasket looks to be in decent condition and this whole ordeal could just be related to a poor rebuild.

Gretch

If you have it down to a couple of drops... leave it alone.....Those pan bolts are not spectd' for 20 pounds, you risk doing more damage than good going any tighter.......

I check mine at least once a year when I have the car up in the air.....they loosen up.......

Garth S

Gretch is correct: these 30 some bolts chronically back out as the cork gasket gets old and hardens. A "2 finger" tight with a short 10mm spanner is about right - any more, and you will squirt a piece of gasket out ....
Should you eventually need/choose to replace this gasket, I published a method here that avoids touching the steering rack.

Bill Ball

The stated torque for those bolts is 8 ft lbs, IIRC, and even that is just on installation. It is quite common for the bolts to be found loose, and they just should be snugged up. It would be nice to loc-tite them, but that is kind of difficult in the presence of an oily mess. Torquing too much just over-compresses the gasket, as Garth said. Be happy with a few drops, as Gretch said.

I will add that you can have a dry pan, but I would wait to redo the gasket until you are in there for some other reason, such as motor mounts.

Adam C

How about loc tite during a rebuild? Are you screwing yourself later when the gasket compresses?

Bill Ball

Adam:

If you loc-tite them with medium strength (blue) you aren't screwed. At the very least I would mark the bolt heads for position. It's kind of academic, but everytime I re-check the bolts they are loose. I don't know if they are backing out or this is from gasket compression with or without the bolts backing out. Medium loc-tite just avoids that question. Others advocate putting gasket goop on the threads.

Big Dave

Mine were loose, too.

I'll have a new gasket in there soon, so I'll be able to report if the loosening phenomenon is limited to older gaskets.

mspiegle

Well, i guess that works for me. Last thing I need is to come this far, and then actually have to replace the gasket because i tightened the bolts down too much.

thanks for all your input!

Bill Ball

Actually, mine occurred soon after replacement, and there was no good way for me to determine if the bolts were simply backing out. They were torqued during installation but not loc-tited. I think as the gasket compresses when new, the bolts lose torque and start backing out due to vibration. My thought (hope) is that if you loc-tite them, when the gasket compresses they will still hold the gasket snug enough not to leak.

Also, I've seen both sides argue about installing the new gasket dry, as Porche did, versus using gasket goop. Same with the WP, for that matter. I went with goop (Yamabond non-hardening) based on recomendation from my main 928 resource person. I really can't say personally which way is best.

Greggles

This guy was selling 928 oil pan gaskets on ebay for a while and gave a long narrative about how the OEM were too hard and his gasket material was the answer.
Has anyone tried one? It appears he does a fair amount of restoration work
http://www.ultramaticdynamics.com/apg.html

Bill Ball

I ordered one of the gaskets from ultradynanics about a year ago. However, the gasket came folded in an envelope, was cut by hand with the holes slightly off center and was very thin compared to the stock cork gasket. I decided not to use it. Others have used it and can report on it.

Garth S

I'm one of the satisfied users: as Bill noted, the gasket arrived bagged - looking like a plate of soggy pasta; however, the gasket material is a neoprene rubber/cork matrix of ~1/2 the oem cork gasket thickness, so is quite resilient.
I spread it out between cardboard sheets for a time, and it laid like a rug - perfect. The installation went well, no sealant used - and still dry. The gasket will take more clamping pressure than cork, being somewhat elastic. I'd go that route again.

jpitman2

IIRC, the oem is too soft, compresses and squeezes out under excessive bolt torque. Best gasket material I have found is the composite cork and firm rubber chip mix, but I dont think you can buy it in rolls.
From my wrench, the solution is correct torque and Yamabond gasket cement or a similar item - comes under several different trade names I hear. Its pretty common for lightly torqued bolts into alloy to work out due to the way the alloy expands or moves - my LR alloy blocks all did this.
jp 83 Euro S AT 48k

GChat

A timely topic as my mounts are out and the pan off and my OEM gasket arrived yesterday! Oh what I wouldn't give for a hoist. My plan was to use the Yamabond and non-permanent loc-tite. Any problem with that plan? I suppose worst case would be some leaking if the gasket was to shrink - then it would mean tightening again.

By the way, those front bolts are not fun to get at!

Greg

Garth S

What I've read by those that used Yamabond 4 is that they dipped the bolts in the same goop after slathering the gasket both sides - might be easier for subsquent "adjustments" that using blue /whatever loctite.

So, still piloting two euros?