Has anyone actually been successful not running a pan gasket?

[Whut]

I was having rather large oil issues. It made for a good cover this winter with telling anyone that commented on it that it was a good car till the motor bombed. That was about it though, I was getting tired of all the oil every where and decided to do something about it.

Last night we put it up on a hoist and started looking at all the places others have said the oil was coming from. I looked at the pan and thought the "gasket" looked odd and the amount of oil just around the pan was the worst area. I am working with Tom Shea and he agreed the pan was one of the worst he had seen.

So we dropped it to find this,

There was no gasket at all. It was all RTV, lots of it, blobs of it in the bottom of the pan, every bolt was "capped" with RTV while the threads were encased in it. It was stuck on the block, stuck on the pan, it was every where, in fact some of it was stuck on the pick up.

This is a blurry shot of me peeling it off the pan.

All the black on the rail is RTV.

The front suspension area was coated with oil and dirt. I took some time cleaning it with alcohol and think it turned out pretty ok.

It took me three hours to clean everything around the block and the pan as well as each bolt. The pan cleaned up nicely, I guess all the oil and the previous hack job sort of protected it.

We ended up changing the rear main seal that once inspected looked almost new which lead us to believe the previous owner replaced it and just hacked everything back together for a quick sale. I was that sucker.

Anyways, its back on with a nice fat Duttweiler (sp) pan gasket tucked in between it and the block.

I still have a lot of cleaning to do but I am happy to have the big oil leak fixed.

So my question is, is this a hack job or do people actually get good results doing this.

 

[Tom Tom Turbo]

who knows......mine is still leaking....for the 4th time!

 

[DR BOOST]

tom,
next time your up this way, i have an extra pan that u can have. urs is probably bent

surej

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Hope whoever did that didn't build the motor too!

 

[Whut]

Hope whoever did that didn't build the motor too!

We went through it, checked the bearings and put a new rear main in. Everything looks ok, some slight scoring on the main bearing but nothing to be super concerned about. I spun a bearing once so I am extra paranoid about that. We also cut open the oil filter and inspected that and found nothing to be alarmed about.

I used to think this car was just a neglected (stored outside for six years in Wisconsin) GN but the further I dig into it I see it was a pile that I paid way to much for. On the plus side, I am doing all the work, I have rescued this car from the grave, it was running bad and the paint was shot when I got it. Now I know every inch of this car and know exactly what has been done to it and what parts are on it. It took almost three years but I am very happy with this car now, it will stay with me until I cant drive anymore. I dont have nor do I want kids so if my nephew is into cars he will get it when that time comes.

Off topic, do you have any MAFless intake pipes?

 

[chopped39]

There is a lot of new cars that use sealer for oil pan gaskets today. mainly imports. its cheaper for the manufacturer. but sealers have come along way. I use right stuff alot on gm intake manifolds. but that looks like the guy that did that pan went a little over board. but if there is a good gasket offered that is the way to go:biggrin:

 

[josh watson]

you

can get away with toyota gasket maker....all you need is a friend that's a toyota machanic and you have it made it actually works quite well (if you don't go overboard)

 

[GNTIM]

Clearly a hack job. True, a lot of newer cars don't use gaskets for the pan and even timing covers but they are machined very tightly. These cars are notorious for having uneven pans. I always use the cork gaskets and check the bolt tightness often.

 

[TurboDave]

There is a lot of new cars that use sealer for oil pan gaskets today. mainly imports. its cheaper for the manufacturer. but sealers have come along way. I use right stuff alot on gm intake manifolds. but that looks like the guy that did that pan went a little over board. but if there is a good gasket offered that is the way to go:biggrin:

Yes, but as GNTIM stated those pans are different from ours. You'll notice most new cars today have cast pans and the rails are machined to very tight tolerances. And being machined they wont "move" around or change shape.

 

[ronbuick]

Chrysler trans in all their FWD and the one in the Hemi pick up use the silicone
on their tranny pans for what ever reason, when we do a trans service we use gaskets with no sealer and torqued at 3 different values to about 10-12 lbs, I see a lot of those tranny's start to leak with at a early age with the RTV. Plus they are fun to remove

Ron

 

[GNeric]

can get away with toyota gasket maker....all you need is a friend that's a toyota machanic and you have it made it actually works quite well (if you don't go overboard)

I work for Toyota and we get lots of the black gasket maker. Works on the stamped steel pans, even the Supercharged 4Runner pans. No leaks but they only run around 6psi boost. I can send you some if you like. I have lots of extra tubes.