alexands

I'm chasing a pipe dream - to fix all of the oil leaks on my car. I need to pull the oil pump and it appears the only way to do this is to drop the oil pan a 1/4" or so so the gasket clears the lip. Is this the only way to do this? Can I get the pump off without loosening the oil pan? If no, can I just loosen the pan or do I have to remove the whole thing (please say JUST LOOSEN ).

TIA,
Scott

jimbo1111

Where is your oil leak coming from? I have removed the pump without lowering the oil pan. You will have to remove the front seal first. Just be very careful to not scratch the crank shaft with the pumps gear teeth when removing it. You may want to black tape the shaft before removal. The pump is glued on with loctite(forgot the number). The pan gasket is siliconed on to the pump housing. You will have to break the loktite seal with a screw driver and maneuver the pump around . The mating surface on the block will have to be cleaned. The loktite is hard to get off. Fun job

alexands

Jimbo, THANKS!! I actually never thought about removing the seal and gear first (Rennlist is a beautiful thing). That should give me enough room to lift it over the oil pan gasket lip at the front. The leak is where the pump mounts to the surface of the block. The new engine has about 1K miles on it and we didn't use loctite putting it back together (didn't RTFM).

Thanks again!

Chris White

If it is leaking at the oil pump you might have over looked the part in the manual where you need to align the crank girdle with the block using a hammer (!). Yep, that’s the factory way. Also – once the girdle is aligned you may need to run a stone over the face (where the pump mounts) to make sure it is flush. Skip these steps and you will have a leaker for sure.

When you do the removal of the pump without dropping the pan it is a pain in the butt to reassemble. The upwards pressure from the pan gasket will make it difficult to get the pump drive sleeve in place – and it is a good idea to do that before you bolt the pump down since the sleeve will do some of the alignment. Bolt it down first and you may not get the sleeve in later.

Chris White

alexands

You're right, Chris. Going back together is a PITA. Got everything done though and took it out last night. I think the leak was caused from a bad seal between the block and oil pump. Didn't RTFM when I built it and just used some generic gasket sealer. I have been unable to find the recommened Loctite 574, so Bob at Zimms recommened I go to the Mercedes dealership next door and they have some OEM stuff that's as good or better. We'll see.