cracked oil pan

[blind029]

Alright, so let's get it out of the way and say I'm a little crazy, but i picked up an 89 ranger 4 banger manual with a locked up trans, put in a good used trans, then the head blew, so i rebuilt the motor due to major carbon buildup up and the need for 20w50 oil. Lots of time and money later I've been driving the truck about a week, (about 150 miles) and when i was putting new tires on it today, noticed a steady leak from the back of the motor behind the starter. Turns out the oil pan cracked right below the rear most bolt and is seeping out steadily.

So, couple of questions....do i have to replace this with an aluminum pan, or could i go back to one of the older ones that still had the oil level sensor? and secondly is this something that happens, or would this be a faulty pan, or some sort of stress that caused this to happen?

Also, when i assembled the motor i step torqued it to seat the pan, then used the sequence spreading out from the center bolts at the torque spec of like 8 lbs or whatever it was. The transmission bolts in the bottom of the pan are also torqued properly, which i would think would help with the overall strength of the pan, but i just hope someone can shed some light as to why this could have happened?

 

[bluebikerboy1]

my mazda oil pan gasket was leaking. i used this stuff and it worked. it took 3 bottles but the end result is a whitish residue that dries around the leak. it feels like rubber.
http://www.bardahl.com/mods/gallery...&categoryid=32&text=&imageid=55&box=&shownew=
it did stop it leaking. just a thought.
i got mine at autozone.

 

[blind029]

answered my own question

I got a hold of the ford work instructions for this oil pan, and it turns out there's a couple of spacers that my truck didn't have because there were no bolts in the pan to the transmission when i got the truck...serves me right for putting them there. Anyways, your supposed to put a straight edge on one of the engine block to trans mounting surfaces and run it to the oil pan mounting holes. Here's the required shims:
0-0.254mm/0-0.010 in-no spacer required
0.27-0.51mm/0.011-0.020in; 0.254mm/0.010in spacer; color code yellow
0.52-0.76mm/0.021-0.030in; 0.508mm/0.020in spacer; color code blue
0.78-1.01mm/0.031-0.040in; 0.762mm/0.030in spacer; color code pink

i figure if anything this might be useful at the 4 cyl tech page...hint hint
and i emailed myself the work instruction pictures so those are available too