Im preparing the engine to go back together. I got a couple oil pans in the garage and im trying to get the old gasket off of them. The old gasket is hard, brittle and stuck to the oil pan. ANyone have any tricks up their sleeve to loosen the gasket material?

 

-Brian

I used a wire brush in a drill (lightly) - nice to have something on the engine thats steel not aluminium!

Brake parts cleaner will soften it up a little.

Gasket remover spray, and a razorblade

i hate removing the old oil pan gasket more than anything, get a chisel (sp?) and go at it.

I've used the wire brush/drill method many times, Fords and Chevys (mostly during the 70's:burnout: ). Just find a way to secure the pan so both hands are free while working. Please be careful if scraping, I've seen some weird things happen when the "scraping tool" slips...and it will.

 

My 2 bucks

Yeah, i have some brake cleaner... maybe i'll go spray it and leave it overnight.

 

The gasket is super thick... i dont really feel like grinding all of it away. Maybe i'll take it to work and use the wire wheel we have there... make real quick work of the job

 

-Brian

I wire wheel mine...no problems...unless your wire wheel spins hella fast and acts more like a saw blade.

 

Oh yeah, Brad, I remember that time when you were removing the gasket off of your wagon's oil pan...I thought you liked the wires shooting off into your bare leg?

 

Justin.

yeah when i did the oilpan on my coupe in december, fond memorys of that damn brush were remembered.

Bench grinder with a wire wheel along with soaking it in solvent on the gasket surface.

What they said plus time.

I messed with mine for a while then I took it to the machine shop. Had them clean the pan when they were doing heads and cleaning other stuff, so it was basically free. I didn't even want to begin trying to clean the inside...

Eye protection a must!

Eye protection a must!

and leg protection from crappy wire wheels on an angle grinder, lol

all you people and your crude mechanical methods... go down to kragens and buy a 5 gallon bucket of berryman's carb cleaner parts dip.. let the oil pan sit in it overnight, in the morning remove and ask yourself, where did the gasket go? Where did the PAINT go? TA DA!!! (please wear gloves with this product, and thoroghly rinse after dip) If you dont wanna buy one of those, then If I recall brushing on the good ol jasco paint remover gel stuff will eat that gasket right off of there too...

 

-Mike

FIRE! will either burn off the gasket, or soften it so it can be scraped off

hey Brian, were you able to get them off?