EA81 oil pump removal FAIL (large photo warning)

[Dania02525]

I thought I would post this for anyone searching on what the worst thing that could happen while changing your oil pump.  Mine was siezed in there, and I tried all the tricks to get it to move- left the oil filter on, tried to break it free and nothing, no movement at all.  kept at it until it broke, leaving half of the oil pump inside the block and aluminum shards everywhere.  I had to chisel it out of there, which in retrospect was probably not the brightest thing to do on an aluminum block, but what else to do- I had to get the pieces out of there. 

 

Needless to say, I ended up with some nicks in the block in addition to the corrosion spots already there.  I did my best to clean them up, removing the high spots without taking too much aluminum off.  I then put a skim coat of permatex ultra copper RTV on both sides of the gasket, and put it together. After a day to dry, it leaks :-(.  I guess I'm pulling the engine now, hopefully the machine shop can resurface it without having to fully take the engine apart but I'm not sure :-/

 

Cleaned up, but still ugly:

 

 

 

Skim coat of RTV- a hail mary that didn't work :-(

 

 

Moral of the story: DONT MESS YOUR BLOCK UP!

[stratman977]

You could try to fill the nicks with jb weld and then sand it smooth. It worked for me on a ford crankshaft that the oil seal wore down the crankshaft a little.

[subarubrat]

Pull the engine and split the case, easy extraction then, and you can get eyes on the problem much better.

[Dania02525]

You could try to fill the nicks with jb weld and then sand it smooth. It worked for me on a ford crankshaft that the oil seal wore down the crankshaft a little.

 

 

I was thinking to do this, but that oil pump surface is to really tight tolerances, and uses a really thin paper gasket.  I also need a clutch anyway....