VikingTrad3r

im in the process of repairing an oil pan gasket leak by replacing with a new cork gasket. real time, in the my garage watching the edmonton / calgary football game and doing this job as well.


1. how do i break my 85 L98 oil pan gasket free?
I have everything undone, starter out of the way. do i hit it with a rubber mallet? crowbar? its stuck on there good with the old cork gasket.

Its on 4 jack stands.


and 2.
the metal "rails" that came off after all the bolts/studs were removed is pretty bent up. are these allright to re-use?

kudos. looks like the stamps are going to beat the eskis woohoo!

THE 383 admiral

Re-shape the metal rails. Fine tune them with a rubber mallet.
If all the side bolts & 4 corner nuts are out. The pan should drop.
use a wide flat pry bar & carefully break the sealant bead.
PS
remove the 4 corner rev torx studs with a socket.

VikingTrad3r

i have a feeling that i have slightly bent the pan flange on the driver side but i assume this happens regularily.

however the passenger side wont budge. is there something different about it? i have the dip stick out. but not the dip stick housing.

THE 383 admiral

nothing wrong with pulling the housing up out of the way!!

VikingTrad3r

and there was zero metal in the bottom of my pan. this is really cool guys it is completely new territory for me. ive learned more about cars and how they work from just rolling up the sleeves and getting started then asking questions here...looking from the bottom up into my engine is pretty neat.

anyway here are the 3 new questions:

1. i have bits of brittle gasket glued to the engine block, and to the oil pan. i have a razor blade, but i cannot imagine with just the blade i will make the surface perfectly clean. so what else do you guys use to make the oil pan and engine block clean from the old gasket? 3m pads? spray with wd40 or something to loosen it up?

2. there is like a large flat plate mounted just above what looks to be the oil pump inlet. if i scrape that dried cork its going to land on top of that and then get circulated throughout my engine. do you guys pull all that off before doing this cleaning job?

3. for the application of my permatex aviation form-a-gasket (3H) i was just going to follow the instructions on the little white bottle. Any extra hints or tips? I used this 3H permatex form a gasket from a recommendation in a waterpump replace install thread from this forum.



Thanks all - you guys are seriously awesome and this forum is like a goldmine.


On my 85 Bright red z51 I have now completed:
- water pump
- rear driver wheel hub
- fixed parking brake
- front suspension
- full engine flush
- remove tint on side windows (not legal where i am from)

whats left to do:

- finish oil pan gasket repair - it was leaking
- tranny dipstick tube gasket repair - it is leaking
- tranny rear tailshaft housing seal - it is leaking
- cover or paint the acryllic top, its cracked and scrapped, think it flew off.
- repair metal gas line rear driver side close to parking brake equalizer that was punctured by a previous owner using a jack by the looks of it. (see pictures) ideas for a fix? I was going to cut them and install a rubber piece to bridge the gap on both of them.

this girl runs great. she was leaking like a seive though from various locations!

pictures:













should i remove this plate because im going to get flakes of cork on it in removing the old gasket.








a previous owner cracked both of these gas lines and there is an indent in them consistent with having a jack stuck under them. i presume they are return lines?





fairly clean? there was zero metal. a bit of red rubber from some gasket i presume.

THE 383 admiral

Very clean 85!!! That's how a engine should be treated. The previous owner/s
Pored love in that engine. It could not get any better. Now you can correct the 80's cork gasket trend. That dries up & brittle. I would use a good scraper.
Or a reg scraper. You should remove the oil deflector. I would up-grade your oil pump shaft to a metal coupler VS the now brittle nylon. You will need to re-torque the oil pump bolt.

VikingTrad3r

thanks, i'll swap to a metal coupler and will remove the deflector.

is this clean enough for the pan flange? what i did was use a wire wheel but held in my hand not on the drill. i dipped it in oil and it did the trick quite nicely. ihavn't done the bottom of the block yet and i am not looking forward to lol.

i have some more wire wheels i could stick on the end of a multi tool but i think i might scratch the block? not sure if i can get all the crud off without scratching the block?

cheers, VikingTrad3r







cleaning this thing really sucked








i just held this in my hand, and dipped it in oil. that stopped any scratches and didn't allow the cork to fluff about in the air because it was caked in oil. worked good.

Joe C

WRONG!!! can't say I've read where you changed your mind, but replacing an old junk gasket for a new junk gasket is not the way to go. cork is so old school . my suggestion, a fel-pro one piece pan gasket. I'm sure most everyone here will agree. while this in not a difficult job, it is a royal PITA. I'm sure you will only want to do it once - leak free, and be done with it. I installed one on my 85 back in 2008. some 40K miles later, and still bone dry.



remember, it doesn't cost anymore to go first class, ya just can't go as far!"

WW7

with Joe....No one uses cork anymore, go with the felpro rubber gaskets. That way if you ever have to remove the pan again, it will just drop down and have no cleaning necessary....WW

VikingTrad3r

thankyou thankyou thankyou.

as i mentioned this is all new territory to me and i appreciate the passing on of this kind of experience.

i do NOT want to do this again.

is there any goop that needs to be used for the rubber one?

thanks, VikingTrad3r

Joe C

well, by goop, if you mean silicone RTV, I'd say yes. it's been a few years, but as I recall, the fel-pro instructions says to put a dab of RTV sealant in the four corners - I applied a little amount of RTV where the timing cover and the block meet, and the same on the rear main seal bracket. make sure those areas are clean (w/solvent) and free from any oils - I MEAN SQUEEKY CLEAN.

VikingTrad3r

Thanks I will have a look at the instructions on the box and i doubt a bead of rtv will hurt...especially if i cannot get the block mounting face perfectly clean. i have ordered from my local autovalue (as they call them up here) and for the extra 39$ i am so sold.

still have to tackle cleaning off the block. looking to be done this project and re-filled with oil in 2 days time. i work on the car between when the kids go to bed and when i go to bed! Cheers. If I had a full 12 hours start to finish i think i could pull it off quickly on the jack stands.

This red 85 Z51 has 28000 miles. Unfortunately it leaked like a basket ball net. We paid 5K for it and will have another 600$ into it before all its leaks are sealed up. I have a love affair with C4's. There are no mods done to this car. We will be selling the car in calgary canada later this spring.

I also own an 87Z52, black, with 110,000 miles, which i am not selling, and i am looking forward to doing the work on it after this red 85Z51 one is complete. the funny thing is that my low mileage car leaks a heck of a lot more than my high (isn't that high actually) mileage car.

HAD2HAV2

Question since I am late to the thread. You pulled the oil pan without pulling the engine. I have looked over this job with my 88 C4 on a lift and find it to look difficult. Can you explain exactly what you did?

VikingTrad3r

Hi Had2. You are not late to the thread! I am still only half way through this job. I havn't had time to get under the car and clean off the old gasket from the engine block yet!

Anyway, it really wasn't that tough on my 85:

disconnect your negative battery cable.

pull the dip stick out

drain your oil.

if you have the oil cooler like me, undo the line and drain the coolant. be careful here. wear coveralls, eye protection, and have one of those black plastic bins for oil and coolant changes ready to collect all the coolant that is going to come out of that hose.

Next remove the starter. there is one nut on the starter brace to undo, then two bolts. starter now can be moved up out of the way. i never removed the electrical wires from the starter because i figured i could just zip tie it up out of the way of the pan but it actually rested nicely up against the fuel lines and i never had to fasten it. so it is undone right now, sort of cradled in the fuel lines.

then remove all the screws of the pan. note which ones have the hangers, which ones have the studs. the 4 corner bolts may or may not also bring the stud with it. if it does not bring the stud with it, then use a torx socket to remove it. if you dont' have torx socket, you can get an el cheapo torx socket set for 5 bucks at the auto store.

once you have all that out, i pray that you pan is not glued to the underside of your block like mine was. Mine is the original and it was friggen glued and I mean glued. no question i slightly bent the flange of my pan when i removed mine, using a pry bar with a screw driver type handle that came in a big screw driver set i bought. It would really be nice if there was more room because you could slip something really thin in, but there just isn't the room. All I can say if yours is glued like mine was, its going to feel like you are making zero progress. Just keep hammering away on the crow bar thingy between the pan and the block. make sure you do not actually indent or scratch the block. one side broke free and the other side took alot more time but eventually it came. i will be placing my pan on my cement floor and tapping the flange flat again using a piece of 2x4 and my rubber mallet to move it back to perfect flat.

i described what i used to get the cork off my pan flange above holding in my hand a wire brush designed to go in a drill. moisten it if you do it so the cork doesn't fluff out. you will be able to use a rag and keep your pan free from cork debris if its coated with oil.

i did not remove either of the frame braces to get the pan off. Although, I think I will remove both of them to put it back on.

I returned my cork 4 piece gasket for the one piece that was recommended so i am not quite as worried about the gasket being shifted while putting it in place but still i will move the frame braces (you will see what i mean by frame braces when you get under the car) to make the install easier.

I plan on cleaning the cork off the block tomorrow evening after the kids are in bed, by putting the same wire brush on a drill and gently going at it. i am removing the splash guard and anything else that would get cork bits on it. and i am stuffing news paper up into the block around the piston arms and such. that should stop bits of oiled cork from getting onto the engine.

this might sound involved but its my first time doing this and so my explanation is not concise. cheers hope it helps. if you have any qeustions, post the question with pictures and I will do my best to help out.


Also note that it is possible apparently that there is a counter weight somewhere that gets in the way of dropping the pan. i just tried mine and it came out. i have read that by removing one of the frame braces this may be a solution if you happen to have the couter weight in the way. it depends on how the engine shuts down. i also read that you can turn the engine over by hand (ive never done this) until the counter weight is in a different spot in the rotation and no longer in the way.



VikingTrad3r

I will be posting a followup to my re-install.





this is what i used to hammer my pry bar thingy that was in my screw driver set.





my pry bar thingy. worked well.

VikingTrad3r

Hi Had2. back with my report.

ok the cork 4 piece should not even be considered if you are doing this job under the car on jackstands. no way.

the 1 piece blue fellro rubber is great.

i followed the instructions in the box with respect to rtv. just some at the 4 corners. note that because te gasket is thicker, the oil pan "rails" cannot be used. just bolt up the pan. the kit gives washers.

my only snag was that one of the oil pan bolts felt like it wanted to cross thread back in, so i didnt force it. instead im heading to the tool store to get a tap set to straightn it out first. as such i have not yet filled it with oil and i do not know if it is going to hold a seal yet!!

here is a pic of how clean the engine block was cleaned on the mounting face. i used just an old chisel which worked really well because it was small enough that i could get in there with it. my big hint for the cleaning both the block face and oil pan flange is to keep everything soaked on oil. the cork comes off much easier when soaked with oil.

VikingTrad3r

allright. it worked. no leaks on the oil pan or the water pump gasket which I also replaced.

don't bother with the cork gasket unless you have the pan off. even then I would spend the extra 30 bucks and get the rubber felpro one.

Skvitt

I think this will be on my to do list for this summer. Good wright up. Lot's of info.

89dd

The Felpro rubber gaskets are the only way to go.
Use them also when it's time to do your valve covers.

ajp01

I am doing this exact job right now, using the Fel Pro blue 1-piece based on all the excellent info on the site. I can confirm; the job takes longer than it should because of all the cleaning involved. I have seen people say they could get this done in 2-3 hours. You guys are faster than me for sure, but as this job is not something you want to do twice I'm definitely taking my time. My '89 also has the pan stuck on there really well, but when I consider that it's been in place for 32 years I get it. Leaks like a sieve also, but I'm gonna fix that.