oil pan gasket

[snd4mc]

Hi everyone! i have a 1990 4.0 2wd ranger i just bought and the oil pan is leaking. The book said you have to pull the engine. Can you replace the rubber seal without pulling the motor? Any help would be great thanks.

[Wicked_Sludge]

if you unbolt the motor from its mounts and jack it up its possible to snake the new gasket into place...but its not fun.

[MAKG]

While you "can" do it that way, the replacement is almost certainly going to leak, and it may be worse than it is now.

Wicked, are you sure you don't need to remove the transmission as well? I don't think you can jack the engine up high enough without that. Certainly not on a 4WD.

This is one of those "do it right" moments. 4.0L oil pans are BIG and there is a lot of stuff in the way. Keep in mind, the oil pump goes almost all the way to the bottom, as it must. You'll have to jack up the engine higher than the thickness of the oil pan if you want to remove it. Which is highly advisible if you don't want your new gasket to leak (it's hard to clean a surface you can't see and can barely feel).

[Wicked_Sludge]

Wicked, are you sure you don't need to remove the transmission as well?

just did it last week in fact on a 95 4x4. the tranny stays put. the gasket that came out was one of those rubber-attached-to-hard-plastic ones (not sure if they ever used anything else on these), so there was very little cleaning/surface prep to do. drop the pan down about 3", cut the old gasket to remove, then snake the new one down around the oil pickup tube and into place.

it can be done...but its not fun.

[snd4mc]

thanks for the info, i'm going to try it this weekend and i'll let you
know how it goes. marc

[woodyedmiston]

Let me add my 2 cents worth. Yours is a 90 - with some miles I'll guess. I'm amazed at what kind of mileage these little engines will handle - mine has just over 240K and would still be running well if it were not for the plastic valve that controls the heater. It dumped all my coolant on the freeway and before I knew it was hot (stock guages stink) I'd cracked a head. It still runs but I'm replacing the motor over Labor Day.

Back to you - If you pull the engine, you can replace the oil pump, water pump, and timing chain while you have it out. You can move your AC out of the way and not disconnect it. The toughest job will be to get the bolts out of the exhaust manifolds - lots of penetrating old helps. If you are careful, maybe take pictures, the wiring has specific connectors that won't let you plug something back incorrectly. I'd suggest adding manual water temp and oil pressure guages while you have the motor out. You can use ramps to get under the car - get everything disconnected then beg, borrow or rent an engine hoist. You don't have to take the trans out too - but you do have to figure out a way to keep it from dropping and ruining the rear trans mount. I suggest a rachet strap or bottle jack. If you have the manual - it will tell you what to do in what order.

There you go - I've done it - it's not that hard. Keep changing the oil after all of this and you'll probably have a long mileage engine.

[snd4mc]

well over the weekend i jacked up the engine about three inches and too my amazment someone( previous owner ) must have tried the same thing because the pan had silacone smeared all over . The rubber gasket was was very brittle by the way, and i found a small crack in the side toward the rear, like they tried to pry the pan down. Well i ended up pulling the engine out which wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be, about three hours.:icon_cheers: so i'm going to check the timming chain etc.. and reseal the entire engine while it's out.