Oil Pan Gasket Replacement Advice Request

[LorenS]

After mentioning last week that my truck leaks like a sieve, that bugged me all weekend to the point I want to get it handled before "someday", but have some questions.

1. Is it worth the time and effort to change the pan gasket knowing full well that my front seal needs to be changed, too?  While best to do both at the same time, I'm sure, I'm also willing to do the pan twice if dropping the pan isn't a massive endeavor.
2. Is dropping the pan a big endeavor?  I've dropped some pans in my day, even changed out all the bearings from the bottom before - but never on an engine so tight to the cross member. (think a gas big block in a 3-ton truck)
3. Regardless of whether I do it once or twice, is a there a consensus on brand?  Mahle? Victor-Reinz? Whatever is cheapest among name brands?  Unlike CAT, I don't believe Cummins makes gaskets so seems pointless to go "OEM" unless they have better specs when they order them.

 

I plan to change the front crank seal when I have the front half of the truck basically disassembled to put in new A/C condenser, straighten the mounting tabs on my intercooler (PO deer damage), etc.  All this work will get done at my dad's garage and coordinating with his schedule isn't easy.  I can change the oil pan gasket either in my driveway or at work.

[Mopar1973Man]

I'll be doing a pan gasket on this truck in my shop. I'm not going to video record this be time is tight. I'm going to unbolt the mounts and lift the engine a few inches to gain space. I did like I normally do and got a NAPA gasket. I'll be starting on this very soon. 

[LorenS]

I guess I'll be saving this project for another time, to do all my things at once.  Thanks for the insight.

[wil440]

7 hours ago, LorenS said:

Unlike CAT, I don't believe Cummins makes gaskets so seems pointless to go "OEM" unless they have better specs when they order them.

Cat pretty much make nothing but frames, and the companies that they own that makes some stuff I wouldn't want to say on here how they end up buying said companies

 

They certainly don't make gaskets that's for sure

[LorenS]

4 hours ago, wil440 said:

They certainly don't make gaskets that's for sure

I thought the facility in (or near) Booneville, MO made gaskets, maybe it is (or was) rubber things. Two of my college roommates were interns there one summer 20 years ago; I really don't remember what they told me!

[wil440]

4 hours ago, LorenS said:

20 years ago

That's the giveaway

they are now assemblers and pretty bad at that too

[Max Tune]

5 hours ago, wil440 said:

That's the giveaway

they are now assemblers and pretty bad at that too

Quite sad really. When I started operating heavy equipment back in '79/80, Cat was the holy grail of heavy equipment. When I retired a few years ago, Cat machines were few and far between.

[wil440]

1 minute ago, Max Tune said:

Quite sad really. When I started operating heavy equipment back in '79/80, Cat was the holy grail of heavy equipment. When I retired a few years ago, Cat machines were few and far between.

Yes very sad, I did my apprenticeship HGV  which is diesel trucks, had to do a car module first then 4 years college block release just on big trucks, early 80's about 3 or 4 years after my apprenticeship had finished I swapped to heavy mobile plant and ran the plant workshop at the quarry in the village I live in from about 24 years old, it was the same company that I did my apprenticeship with so swapping was just a different workshop

We ran a Cat 980C loading shovel on the face ( granite quarry) alongside first a Poclain excavator then 2  Liebherrs which were 974's but not both at the same time

The 980c was a 63X serial number prefix 1982, all steel even inside the cab, what was plastic in the cab was the old light brown stuff and never  broke as it weighed a ton, that thing did 39000 hrs at the face in a granite quarry up until the quarry shut in about 93/94, we rebuilt the engine 3 times, trans about the same and rebuilt maybe 4 or 5 grenaded front final drives which were the old proper hub reduction drives, when the quarry shut it went to Africa to carry on working.

You'd be luck to get 10khrs out of the rubbish they build now... cheap junk sold for max money, on loading shovels the H was about the turning point, H was simple and pretty strong

[Mopar1973Man]

 

 

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Lifted the engine just enough so I can scrape off the old gasket. Both engine mounts are 22mm. It's going to be fun to slip the gasket in.

[wil440]

I've done the same on Cat 775 dumptrucks, but you aint supporting that engine on an engine crane, dropped the sump to change oil pump, was a major Cat rework as the oil pumps were garbage

[Mopar1973Man]

Since I'm doing tie rods all that out of the way makes it a bit more room to get the pan cleaned up.

[LorenS]

12 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

It's going to be fun to slip the gasket in.

I'm guessing not enough room to completely remove the pan from under the truck, is that correct?

[Mopar1973Man]

Pull the transmission and the oil pan would come out.

[Mopar1973Man]

Ha ******... Yes you can remove the pan without pullin the trans. Just drop the front axle so it hangs, the lift the engine 3 inches. Pull the pick up tube. Out it comes.

 

[LorenS]

3 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Just drop the front axle so it hangs, the lift the engine 3 inches.

Fantastic!  I can do that in my driveway pretty easily, just need to go get my cherry picker from my old garage.
I may wait until I'm closer to oil change time, though.  It may be a while since I now commute in my TDI.

[Mopar1973Man]

Make sure you get a tube of grey RTV silicone. The NAPA gasket the oil pickup gasket can be separated which your going to need to do. You can lightly silicone the pan apply the gasket. Then when the pan goes back up you'll need to install the oil pick up and its gasket first then the oil pan last.

[LorenS]

Just as a fun fact, I looked up the NAPA oil pan gaskets.  They sell a Fel-Pro and a Mahle.  RockAuto sells those as well as a Victor-Reinz.  The VR is Made in USA and is 0.060" thick.  The Mahle is 0.030" thick, and didn't readily locate the Fel-Pro specs.  The bolt hole count doesn't match up on V-R but I'd imagine that's a data-entry error.  The DANA and VR webpage has it wrong and that's where RA gets their data.

I don't know much about materials of construction or anything else.

[Mopar1973Man]

Gasket I'm not worried about. It's the pan bolt lip. The last one to installed the pan over torqued the bolts and dimpled all the bolt holes. Now ive gotta peen the holes back the other direction so the pan is flat again.

[Doubletrouble]

@Mopar1973Man, that shouldn't be to difficult. Could be time consuming though. I've had that in the past on gas engines. Owner saw a leak and immediately grabbed tools to crank the bolts tight. They couldn't figure out how the leak got worse after they tightened them.