78 Brat, Valve cover and oil pan gaskets

[ninefourteener]

My car leaks oil.... I don't know from where... but I figured valve cover and oil pan gaskets would be a good place to start.

 

Some cars are a piece of cake.... other cars are rediculous.

 

What should I expect? Do I have any lurking surprises waiting for me?

 

Tips? Advice before I begin?

[moosens]

Valve covers - which are actually rocker covers (don't worry I say Valve too) they're a piece of cake - a few minutes each with the exception of possible having to scrape the old ones out a bit.

 

Oil pan count on a good half hour AFTER you've spent the time lifting ,etc.

 

Plenty of gaskets out there. Good luck.

 

Oh , do the oil pump too ... And inspect the head gaskets for leakage too. When they sit a LONG time they can soak thru.

[ninefourteener]

^^^^ I gather that means I need to jack the motor up off its mounts huh?

[ninefourteener]

Bump...

 

Need some help folks.... I don't want to start tearing stuff apart to do this oil pan gasket until I get some advice from an expert.

 

After inspecting.... I "think" there's just 2 nuts.... one for each motor mount that need to be taken off.... but i'm not 100% sure. Is there anything else that needs to be disconnected before jacking? I only need about an inch to get to all the bolts on the back side of the oil pan... but there is no way I'll get to them now.

 

Plus..... where is the best place to put the jack when jacking this thing up off the mounts?

 

HELP!!!!

[moosens]

Best to use an engine crane. No friend's with one around? I picked mine up on sale at like PoopBoys for $119. Saw them even lower than that once on Sale for $89 !!!

 

Jacking will do but you'll need a couple of blocks of wood under the heads to rest it back down on and I really can't verify that you'll get the oil pan off and out that way since I've always picked the engine right out and worked on it that way.

 

Yes ,one nut removed from each side. Mounts stay attatched and lift up.

 

If you don't have the $ for the engine crane , one guy on each side and you lift it right out. But you'll be needing to jack the tranny slightly along with a second jack.

 

Cheap way - use one jack under the pan with wood so you don't hurt the pan. Second jack under tranny to support it when you go to seperate the engine from tranny. 4 nuts on flywheel , leave the intake on just disconnect the fuel line and throttle cable. REmove the radiator first , it gives you more room. And always disconnect the battery -first.

 

When its time to part the two use a putty knife ,then thin flathead screwdirver. There's dowel pins that often like to stick. They should stay inserted into either side ,usually the engine side.

 

Go at it,you'll do fine and anything not mentioned will become obvious and easy enough to deal with.

 

Keep that tranny at the height required to seperate the two which is when the motor mounts clear the bracket by about an inch. When you put them back together have that buddy again and carefully align the shaft of the tranny without stressing weight on it. A little jostling sometimes but the dowels will eventually align and you push the engine back onto the tranny ,throw at least a couple of the nuts back on and get them closed up to each other before resting the engine and tranny back down into the brackets while guiding the motor mount stud in....we've all done it ,you'll be fine.

 

Good luck.

[ninefourteener]

Thanks for the help..... but maybe I'm missing something... I have to separate the engine from the tranny to change an oil pan gasket?

 

I don't understand why... If I disconnect the motor mounts... and then hoist (or Jack) it up an inch, I'll be able to access the pan just fine.

 

It "sounds" like you just gave me instructions for pulling the motor out of the car????

 

Won't the tranny just go up an inch with the engine?

Edited August 29, 2010 by ninefourteener

[Nubaru]

I have a 79 1600 wagon i am trying to get on the road. And i am.. i'll say a novice mechanic.

 

My oil pan gasket was a gusher. I looked into other options besides pulling the motor. It seemed like a great deal of work at first glance. But when i got into the job, it happens fast.

 

I unbolted the exhaust manifold 1st, Marked my hoses and wires, that were even hooked up (my car was a mess when i got). Removed the radiator and alternator, then removed the engine mounts and bell housing bolts. Pulled the engine with a tractor boom, though it could easily be done with 2 men, one on each side, as moosens said.

 

The reasons i went for pulling the engine. The back of the oil pan sitting on the crossmember would make it a real PITA. If i went to the trouble to make it accessable, then i'm 3/4 of the way to an engine pull anyway. Plus, i didnt want to lay in that oil mess while makeing the repairs.

 

So after that long winded response.

 

I vote pulling the engine is the way to go, it's easy, and i had a blast doing it.

 

Good luck!

[ninefourteener]

I appreciate everyone's advice..... although admittedly, i didn't take it. There was no way I was going to pull the motor out of this car. Plus, I don't own a cherry picker... nor a vehicle big enough to get one to my house if I rented one.

 

The valve cover gaskets... piece of cake... got those done last night.. each side took maybe 20 minutes... including scraping off the old gasket.

 

The oil pan.... not so easy.... but I did it.... and the motor barely came off the mounts.

 

So...... I disconnected the motor mounts.... and the driver side exhaust manifold (that was enough to do it).

 

Pulled as many bolts out of the pan that I could access.

 

padded the jack, and jacked up the motor about 1.5 inches by the oil pan.

 

removed the rest of the bolts using a 10mm socket and a couple of different universal joints depending on the application...... and then dropped the motoe back down.

 

Pan came right off:

 

 

 

The oil pickup actually looked excellent... not clogged up or nasty at all.... neither was the pan for that matter.

 

 

Scraped off the pan, as well as the block, with a putty knife and a push razor, cleaned out the pan, cleaned the block, etc. Just a very light app of high temp rtv to hold the gasket in place during the re-install...

 

 

Had a bit of trouble getting the passenger side motor mount to go back in..... after numerous attmpts at "manhandling" the engine back in... I decided to use the BFH and pole technique...... popped right in.

 

And of course..... the tools required:

 

 

All in all.... not "too" bad of a job..... I'm sore though. Didn't have any oil... and it's too late now to do it anyway.... but I'll go ahead and fill it, change out the filter, and I might as well do the tranny and rear diff while I'm at it.

 

Been working on this car 2 years.... I'll be driving it in less than a week

[moosens]

Told ya you'd get it done no matter what.

[subiemech85]

If you would have SEARCHED, you woud have FOUND

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=98021&highlight=oilpan

 

found by searching oilpan in historic

[bendecker]

Thanks for the link to the old thread. However, I found the pictures in this one invaluable.

 

Great info, including the tool pics. Thanks.