tom cooper

Hello Folks,

(I must be nuts, because I sold my 83 944 for giving me heartbreak and now I just bought a "leaky" 86 944 Turbo). Has anyone here replaced their oil pan gasket? How much disassembly (other than removing the shrouds) did you have to go through?



Thanks in advance!
Tom

Jeremy Himsel

The shrouds are the least of your worries.

Outside of being the biggest pain in the *** job on the car with the motor in it, removing the x-over pipe, x-member, PS rack, oil pan, and moving a few other things of the way.....It's not to bad.

Personally, if I had another leaky 951, I would just pull the motor and completely reseal it. It's not much more time consuming then doing the pan gasket by itself.

tom cooper

I was afraid of that. I have seen a few bits and pieces of discussion on the web that talks about hoisting the engine slightly to get to the pan and gasket. I cannot see how the heck one could do that, though.....



oh well....another winter project


Thanks!
TC

theedge

You have to hoist the engine to get its weight off the motor mounts so you can remove the cradle. I SERIOUSLY doubt that you can do the job with the cradle in the way..

In short, its easy with the engine out, scary with the engine in. Anything else needing doing on the car? It might be a good idea to simply remove the engine. This can easily snowball into a lot of money (ask me how I know....) but it makes it easy to do everything in one fell swoop.

tom cooper

Hey Brian,

Thanks for responding. I just eyeballed it up, and I think that you can get the pan out by just dropping the exhaust Y. The other issue will be getting to the oil pan bolts, though, and not munging up the new gasket during installation. I will put it up on a rack this week and explore further.

Regards!
Tom

theedge

Make things easy on yourself... Do this once PM a guy named "MySwiss" and order a set of his gasket retainers. Theyre about $64USD.

Some pics/info on how I did mine.

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...oil+pan+gasket

Jeremy Himsel

You can not get the pan off without dropping the cross member. The oil pickup tube will not allow it.

hosrom_951

A local shop charged me 7.5 hours of labour to do the oil pan gasket, mind you they have a lift, professional tools (air tools) and everything right there, makes everything much easier ( click here for more details )

As Jeremy said, if i were to tackle the pan personally, i would take out the engine and seal up the front, back, pan, balance shaft covers and so on.......a clutch as well would be good (except financially, money runs lower and lower).

Anyway you look at it, invest in some exhaust wraps and wrap the headers and x-over pipe while you are at it, it is cheap and effective!

tom cooper

Hello Gents,

Thanks for the guidance. Glad that I did not try to drop the pan without the disassemblage. I just may have to chicken out and take it to a shop. Or maybe (perhaps better yet) I'll put a For Sale sign on it....

Luck of the draw I guess. I did not catch the oil leak at the auction. There was a steering hose loose, and I thought it was just steering fluid on the covers.

I can see how this could get very expensive, very quickly...

ewainwright

Tom Cooper,

Don't be afraid of replacing the gasket. It's not hard. It is time consumiing (at least for me). Call My Swiss and then Lindsey Racing for the gasket, bearings, and motor mounts while your in there. Use Clark's as a reference. We are all here to help

jimbo1111

Also make sure it's the gasket. There are lots of other things that leak that look like a bad gasket. They maybe easier to repair.

tom cooper

Thanks for the support gents. I am going back and forth about doing the pan gasket myself. I looks like the entire suspension has to come off as the crossmember is recessed into the control arms. Is this the case?

It looks like the engine will have to be hoisted, too, to keep it from dropping when then crossmember is removed. Correct?


Also a great idea to change out the bearings, too, when opened up. Do you know if it is necessary to drop the crossmember to replace the motor mounts, or just hoist the engine a little to replace then.




Thanks!
Tom

tom cooper

And, yes, it is definitely the oil pan gasket. Somer joker gooped it up with Permatex (did not work, obviously) and also built a little tray that keeps the oil from dripping directly onto the exhaust.

I took a BIG leap of faith and bought it sight unseen ( it was a Salvage Vehicle.) All I knew is that it ran and "leaked a little bit of oil..." I did not get lucky and have just the camtower gasket issue....

951North

There's nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche. (or so I've heard)


I hope this is a labor of love... and the rest of the car is worthy of repair...

There has to be areason why the PO never bought it back from salvage?

Good luck!

tom cooper

It is a father/son project so I won't mind the extra time. It was a theft recovery so the PO took the money and ran... Maybe I'll do the same

Tom