I've narrowed the oil leak on my truck to the oil pan gasket. Lucky me. So now I get to figure out the best way to replace it. I've seen that you either have to lift the engine a bit in order to remove the whole pan or that you can just drop the pan on the crossmembwr and snake the old gasket out around the oil pick up. I trust GRM more than the rest, so what do y'all think is my best plan of action?
That will involve removing the transmission to get the pan out the back. I'm pretty sure yours is new enough to have the one piece rubber gasket, so they come off easily, and don't require much cleaning, other than a wipe down with brake cleaner so the new rubber will stick, instead of sliding out of place. Lift the engine as much as possible, drop the pan, pull out the split gasket, the wiggle the new one in without stretching it. I think (It's been a while) I wrap it up around the back of the pan, then pull it around the front, then work it back into place. The oil pump on the front, and the rear sump make it pretty tough to get deep enough to not stretch, but its certainly possible.
Did the oil pan by snaking it around on my '93 4.9L, its longer than the 5.0L. It sucked, it did not seal properly.
While later I disconnected the motor mounts, jacked the engine up till I could set the mounts on chunks of 4x4s and I wiggled the oil pan out. Did a bit of RTV and put the gasket on, then put the pan on. Worked a lot better.
I've dropped the pan on a couple of V8's by dropping the pan and then removing the oil pickup tube from the oil pump and dropping that in the pan. The pan is much easier to remove then. But then sometimes the only way is to jack up the engine too.
Small Block Ford's are always tough. That front distributor that was so nice for changing points puts the oil pump up front, and the sump in the rear.
If you have to use a multi piece gasket, find some contact cement. The one-piece rubber may want some glue to hold it up as well,. Some of the kits have plastic screw snap doodads to hold it in place until you get a bolt or two in. Toughest spot is the little notched beside the rear main.
I second dropping the pickup tube to remove the pan. Second time I also changed the pump, so I forgot that was a step I took.
I paid someone to do mine after I told them it was the rear main seal that was leaking. After they replaced the pan gasket the thing still leaked. "Looks like the rear main seal". Yeah, duh.
They replaced the rear main seal. It still leaks. They also ruined the trans pan when they pulled the trans out.
I've decided the oil leak is 'charming' and adds 'character'.
I've done a pile of them. The book pays to drop the pan out of the truck. It's not necessary though.
Slightly lift the engine, drop pan down onto crossmember, carefully snake new gasket in place.
FelPro includes their SnapUps in gasket kits for exactly this method. Use them.
Never had a come back or leak. Just work methodically.
Sweet, thanks everyone. I've got a felpro gasket and a motorcraft oil filter on the way.
Agreed on the snake-in method.
Use a dab of black RTV where the pan rail meets the front and rear mains. Just four tiny dabs on the pan rail, and four tiny dabs on the pan. Blue arrows below, and same on the back.
Well today didn't go well. I got the pan all unbolted, and the old gasket out. I got one of the little snap up things screwed in, and then dropped the other one in the pan. So looks like I get to drop the whole pan now. I have no idea how I was going to get the front snap ups in anyway.
Other forums tell me that in order to drop the pan I have to unbolt the motor mounts, unbolt the exhaust from the manifolds, loosen the bolts holding the trans to the engine, and pop off the fan shroud. Then jack up the motor and put a couple 1.5" wood blocks between the frame and the mounts. Is that all correct? My truck is 4x4 if that matters.
Doing these suuuuuuucks. You have to jack up the engine and transmission off their mounts to the point where they crush the cab, and then a little more. And then you have to remove the oil pump and the front main cap for clearance reasons.
Installing the front main cap and oil pump, while working inside the oil pan, getting dripped on, etc, is the real sucky part.
I do not miss these, or the oil pans that would rust through before the trucks were even four years old. Place where I worked in the 90s usually had a stack of 10-12 Ford oil pans in the scrap pile at any given time and the jobs were distributed evenly.
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