cracked oil pan....SOS

[Jayco88]

i searched-

well, i bottomed out my car at a rail road crossing, it hurt my soul.... checked to see the damage and it looked like it cracked my oil pan, well, more like annihilated it..... I ordered the part for 50 bucks through ebay... and after an hour of taking the damn thing out(two coolant lines and an anti roll bar cover the rear line of screws) I discover that my UPPER oil pan has some damage. it's cracked in two places...


i was wondering if anyone knew how to take the upper oil pan out? i haven't really looked at it that well, but it looks like i might have to take the whole front off, i might be wrong....

another thing is that the upper oil pan is only cracked in a couple of places and I was considering using jb-weld to fix that, but i don't know if that would work seeing as the oil pan is made of aluminum....

any help is much appreciated.. i haven't driven my car in two whole weeks

[MacDaddy]

something similar happened on my friends old XJR, as a temp fix he tried JB-welding it, but it disn't work too hot, so he had to do it again.

2nd time around he opened up the crack a little with his dremel and drilled the ends of the crack so it wouldn't spread and used some silicone gasket sealer with JB weld on top, that held out pretty good untill he replaced the pan.

[kbjy11]

the key to jbweld is to properly prep the surface to promote bonding. Hard to do when the pan on the car. i would give it a shot though, taking out the upper oil pan is a PITA from what i read.

anyways, does anyone have any tips taking off the lower oil pan???

i am about to tackle this...

Do the coolant lines need to be disconnected? does the sway bar need to be removed as well??

[shadwarr1]

Oh crap I did the same thing to mine 7 months ago 3 days after I bought it! Plus I drove it for 2 blocks the next day with NO oil! Luckily no engine damage after I had a new pan put on. Hopefully you didn't damage anything else...

[Jayco88]

well.... i prepped the upper oil pan with a full can of brake cleaner... used j-b weld to fill the cracks on the inside... installed lower oil pan (used plenty of gasket maker) and filled with mobil 1.. after warming the car up, and taking it for a test drive i noticed a leak the thing is, that some of the bolt holes on the flange didn't line up anymore.. so i'm missing around 4-5 bolts in there

I think this is beyond my skill level...I'm considering taking it to a shop.. the sad part is that i just got quoted $1300 bucks, as this is an 8 hour job and the upper oil pan goes for around 400 bucks... after this, I'm selling the son of a bitch

ps: to remove the lower oil pan, i moved the coolant lines and sway bar out of the way.

[kbjy11]

Did you allow the jb weld to cure for a good 24 hours?

[S4 in_lowplaces]

yes, front end needs to come off for upper oil pan

[tgiblin]

lower pan was easy and you dont need to move anything (yes not even lines or sway bar), where is it leaking from?

[Jayco88]

Since i didn't remove the upper oil pan when i Jb welded it.. some of the upper oil pan's bolt holes on the flange shifted thanks to the cracks... so when i tried to install the lower oil pan there was 4-5 bolts that didn't fit in anymore. I thought that by adding more gasket maker this wouldn't be a problem.. but i was wrong... my leak is coming from the corner where those 4-5 bolts are missing, there's not enough clamping power between the upper and lower pan in that area.

What i need to do now is remove the upper oil pan, re-jb weld it, and make sure the bolt holes on the flange align correctly... but here's my problem, i don't know how to do that(remove the upper oil pan)

anybody got some pointers? i don't just want to start taking things apart that don't have to..

[kbjy11]

lower pan was easy and you dont need to move anything (yes not even lines or sway bar), where is it leaking from?

i just finished replacing my lower oil pan.. i did have to unbolt the sway bar and the coolant lines to have enough play to be able to access the bolts.

maybe the 00 and 01 are slightly different?

anyhow, bro i think you should get get a new upper oil pan and just repalce it.

if it got cracked to a point where the bolt holes no longer line-up, jb-welding will only be a temp fix at best, and you'll end up doing it all again in a couple of months.

[Bee Five]

PM Freddie or Jason, they give expert advice and are nice to boot!

[mikeyvuitton]

ive broken 2 in 1 month. brian@avalon loves me haha.