Alright well I didn't end up pulling the motor which is a good thing! So here are step by step instructions on replacing the oil pan gasket and seals without removing the motor. Oh and Pictures to come and affirmation of sizes needed will come later.
Oil Pan Gasket Replacement 1984 RBV 2.8 L Cologne V6
Materials Needed:
A Friend
A 12 pack
A metric socket set
A breaker bar
A wrench
Extensions big and small
A swivel adapter for wrench
Two floor jacks
Scrap 2x4
Scrap wood to block the motor
Time needed: 2-4 hours ( if everything goes right) Give yourself an extra day just in case the seals don't line up you probably wont want to deal with all that in the same day.
Difficulty: Intermediate
1. Remove the motor mounts one on each side of the motor takes an 18mm IIRC, I used a 3ft extension followed by a pivot to get these suckers off, and a nice big wrench or breaker bar is recommended they can be in there nice and tight.
2. The nuts will come off the top of the motor mounts put those aside for now. Now move to the tranny cross member there’s a single bolt holding it down, I think it’s a 18mm as well, remove that now your tranny is free to move up and down as will be needed very soon.
3. Here’s where I recommend getting a friend, first off raise the motor enough so that you can pull out the bottom piece of the motor mounts. I used a floor jack with some cut to length 2x4s to lift it up nice and easy. The nuts holding the bottom of the motor mounts down is kind of tricky I used a short breaker bar and an extension and a swivel. Pull out the motor mounts and set them aside.
4. Get a nice amount of blocks I’d recommend any pieces of hardwood you have laying around put them where the motor mounts were, you now have hardwood motor mounts
. Here’s the tricky part this takes A LOT of coordination between the two people using the jacks. Start by the person in the front lifting the motor as high as possible. After this is achieved the person under the now needs to feed there wood up under the tranny and start lifting ( in case you don't think this is necessary, it is, lifting the tranny gives those precious few inches of clearance you need to remove that oil pan) This part really has no set instruction you need the person jacking up the tranny and the motor at the same time, I can't really be too clear here but I’m sure you can figure out once you get in there and see what you're working with. After this has been achieved block up the motor and don't let it move what so ever, we ended up cutting wood to fit in there precisely, you CAN NOT let the motor move down what so ever or the oil pan will not slide out.
5. You're now out of the frying pan and into the fire, Start by removing the oil pan bolts there is a lot of them they're either a 10mm or a 12 mm after doing that I’d recommend something like a crowbar or anything flat that you can get leverage on and start prying the oil pan off, once it is hanging down you now are at the hardest and most frustrating part removing the damn oil pan. It will not come out the back you have to pull it out through the front.
6. Now that the oil pan has been pried off and should be sitting loosely on the cross member you need to remove the radiator, I ended up removing the fan and the grill as well to make it go a lot easier. Now that you have some room to work from the front you have to remove the oil pump, I don't remember what size the bolts on there were but I’d recommend getting your arms up in there and going by feel you will get very oily, I just dropped it in the pan and then proceeded to pull out the pan.
7. Now comes the hard part this reminds me of one of those ring puzzles where you have to twist it in just the right way to get them apart, this is the same thing, there are 30000000 ways to do it wrong and only one way to do it right. I can’t really give too much instruction here but I will tell you it took me a lot of pulling, twisting and cursing to get it out of there. CAUTION: if you didn't block up the motor very well now is the time to do it you're going to be moving the rig around a lot to get this out of there.
8. Once that has been accomplished you can give yourself a pat on the back and a nice cold
. Now it’s all pretty self-explanatory get that old gasket off I used a nice putty knife and some carb cleaner to get the old gasket off. After that was done I used soap and hot water to clean the whole thing out that’s probably not really necessary but I really like to treat my things nice. Make sure the gasket surface on both the motor and the oil pan is nice and copacetic, I put RTV around all the bolt holes as well as where the seals meet to for one make it stick on there and ease installation and provide a better seal.
9. Ok now that the gasket and the RTV is on there immediately start putting the oil pan and oil pump back together ( it will take about 10-15 minutes or close to that so the RTV will have time to cure) First get the oil pan back on, again it’s going to be tricky but try to remember how you got it out, you’ll probably end up knocking off one of the seals here so make sure it’s clean when you get it back on and the RTV is at the part where the seal meets the gasket. Now with your pan sitting loosely under its place take your oil pump and put it back on (pack all the various passage ways with petroleum jelly to prime the pump), there should be a gasket that came with the oil pan gasket set that goes between the oil pump and where it hooks on I put just a slight dab of RTV just to make it stick on there. Slide the oil pump in and this is kind of tricky, I held the oil pump in there while my friend hit the bolt with a 3ft extension from the front, tightened it down and we were good to go oil pump secure make sure it’s on their good. Now get the oil pan up there make sure the seals are in the proper place and are always lined up with the gasket as well as in the groove it’s supposed to sit in. ( in case the seals don’t end up lining up it’s not too hard to fix, the first time I did this the seal had slipped out and fell in the pan, I just pulled it out of the oil fill hole and even with the motor where it’s supposed to be you should be able to get it on there good you will know immediately after filling it up with oil if the seal didn’t line up) Alright now start all the bolts in the oil pan just get a thread or two in there and get all the bolt because if you tighten it up the gasket will move around making it hard to get the bolts through the hole in the gasket. There’s a torque setting for these guys somewhere but instead I just got them decently tight, do not torque these too much; they are not very strong bolts and will snap easily.
10. REASSEMBLY FINALLY!!!!!
Alright pretty self-explanatory get the radiator back on and the grill and fan if you took those off as well. Alright lowering the motor back down can be kind of tricky but be careful here keep a few blocks under there and lower it one block at a time. This can be fairly tricky lining up the motor mount brackets in the proper place but you can figure it out it was just kind of a game between me and the person manning the tranny jack to get it just right, put the motor mounts under there and secure the nut on the top and bottom of them, now you can tighten the tranny bolt back up and YOU ARE DONE!!!!! Grab a few beers and revel in your work before you fill the oil back up because you might need a buzz if the seals ended up not lining up
.Fill it up with oil and you're good to go, After the oil pan gasket is on there and the seals lined up make sure for a couple weeks to check the oil pan bolts every couple days and immediately after the first time running it with the new gasket, if any oil slips out of there the gasket surface will not seal that great and you might have the same problem you did before.
Before this goes in the tech library I’d like someone else to edit and skim over it for me, I’m not too sure if I can find these old pictures because I did this probably 6 months ago but I’ll try my best but I think I painted a pretty good picture with my words let me know what you think feel free to edit anything and re post just that section on this thread, thanks.
-Brownie
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