smokindog

Alright, I am weeping oil from somewhere... it appears to be from the pan, but I am aware of the infamous rear main seal.

I'm going to retorque all 33 of the pan bolts first, but for as cheap as the gasket is I have one ordered up.

I did a search already, but turned up conflicting information. One said to simply remove valve cover, remove engine mounts, and jack up engine. While another said that quite a few more things needed to be drained/removed to jack the engine up. I also found a post of my own where I mentioned that I thought it may be possible to swap the gasket without all the hassle... yeah, I wish!

Can someone who has personally changed a gasket without removing the transmission possibly give me a step by step on how to remove and replace the gasket? What needs to be removed or loosened besides the valve cover and the engine mounts?

Thanks in advance fellas!

keithw1975

Mine needs to be replaced as well but I have been putting it off. I also hope to hear how much of a job this will be.

Keith

J BODY

Remove the fan (so it won't hit the upper shroud), loosen the engine mounts, jack up the engine, drop pan, slide it to right to access oil pickup bolts, remove bolts, slide it to left to do the last two oil pickup tube bolts, drop it out, glue gasket to pan, rtv corners, reverse procedure.

smokindog

Just the man I was hoping to hear from.... Sounds pretty straight forward. Thanks!

1-2-3

So it's a one piece gasket? A big O Well, an oval O. You get the idea. Right? Maybe?

smokindog

Charlie,

I would say it is more like a rectangle.... long on the sides and short at the front and back.

I'm not sure that I'll be replacing it just yet. I wiped things down underneath last night and all is just the same as it was when I left it. I will retorque the bolts first, then if it is still leaking I will replace the gasket.

On a brighter note, it is definitely the gasket that is leaking. I looked between the bellhousing and torque converter inspection cover today and it is dry as can be on the back end. The majority of my seapage is on the passenger side near the middle.

smokindog

So after a few drops found their way onto my concrete driveway I finally went over to the shop and tightened the pan bolts. Some of them were at 10 ft.lbs. So I set the torque wrench at 20 lbs. and snugged them all up. I wiped things down again so I'll take a peak under there later in the week and see if I am developing any droplets again.

Common

I'm constantly tightening stuff...

I bet if I left it the way it is, I wouldn't get a drop in a year on the ground...

But I'm strange, and have the worst case of OCD EVER...

In fact, I'm going outside now with a flashlight to see if anything is leaking...

I can tell you not to worry about it, but I know how some of us are, maybe not as bad as me but still...

Throw some RTV on the bolts and side of the pan where its leaking...

What happens when you replace the gasket and it still leaks?