Thread: Oil Pan Gasket Maker?

Be careful that you guys aren't over-tightening the oil pan bolts, especially you, 97 SR20. Making them too tight is just as bad, or worse, than having them real loose. The FSM calls for 4.7 - 5.5 ft-lbs, that's not much at all. Don't use anything bigger than a 1/4" ratchet, and once the bolt bottoms out, just give it a little tweak.

C

Too late for me now. I think it's time I stopped playing mechanic. I'm no good at it.
Anybody want to trade me a 1995-1998 SE 200SX? I want something I don't have to wrench on right now. 1998 200SX SE-R 5 speed, needs oil pan leak fixed and broken pan bolt extracted.:o

Gotcha, I havent been making them too tight, or atleast I hope not,

would this spread the ultra gray/black to much so its just metal on metal?
thus causing a leak?

Even if there's a little residual oil it shouldn't affect the curing process. With my last engine I had a screwed up oil pan, and only let it cure 12 hours. I half assed on removing the old RTV, wiped it down, put a decent bead of ultra black down the groove, and done. I let it tack for 10 min, then tighten it down some. You want to let it tack while the pan is attached to the block for 10 min, by just catching a thread on each bolt, then tighten til it just starts to ooze out after tacking, and let cure. You should retighten after curing just a little.

you guys are making this way too complicated.

Ive used ultra black for the longest time now and never had issues.

Clean both surfaces really good. Spray off with brake cleaner.

Apply a bead through the center of the mating surface where the indentions are and a full circle around the bolt holes. Let tack up for 15 minutes before even attempting to install. Just before you bolt it back up reclean the blocks mating surface as more than likely there will be oil residue on it that ran down the inside of the block. Clean with brake cleaner and a rag till dry and quickly install the pan and tighten the bolts all the way down fully tight to spec.

Let cure for 24 hours before adding oil. Ive never had leakages when doing that.

Make absolute sure that the lower pan mating surface/outer lip is not bent and is flat. You can do this by setting it on a flat piece of concrete or metal plate and hammer the lip down wherever its not touching. Simple as that. Its not rocket science. If after that you are still getting seepage from somewhere. Then its probably not coming from the lower pan and might want to look elsewhere such as the front main seal or the oil pressure sending unit, or the oil filter housing. All common places for oil leaks to occur that can run down the block onto the lower pan.

if there is some distortion on the leaking section of the steel pan or heavy gouging on either surface no amount of rtv will hold it in...

also make sure you follow the pattern in the fsm

not sure why else youd be having such a hard time...

as far as removing the bolt...a series of LH drill bits will always do it...

Yes I read about the left hand drill bits. I'm going to have to try that out, I just hope I don't f**k it up.

an easy out should work. I think those are just LH drill bits.

Could it be that the leak was coming from my oil filter? I just checked the filter and it was loose. There was a bunch of oil in that area too. Wow if this turns out to be the source of the leak, i'll be the biggest idiot out there. Going through all that trouble twice removing the pan and snapping a bolt.

I mentioned in here that I needed to do my pan. Well I cleaned the area well and reexamined. Turns out mine is the front main seal and not the pan.