I need to change the oil pan gasket on my 92 loyale. Loyale has the smoke burn off the exhaust after cruising for a while. I have done a few thread searches, but I cannot find step by step guidance on this. Th rear pan screws seem inaccessible even with a long phillips head. Anyone had to do this maintenance before? Any ideas or help? Thank you in advance.

 

A.J.

I took off the engine mount bolts and jacked the engine up about 4 inches, this gives you clearance to get the rear bolts off, are you sure it all the oil pan leaking. as your driving the wind blows oil from the cam seals and valve covers and drips all over the exhaust as well

I took off the engine mount bolts and jacked the engine up about 4 inches, this gives you clearance to get the rear bolts off, are you sure it all the oil pan leaking. as your driving the wind blows oil from the cam seals and valve covers and drips all over the exhaust as well

 

thats exactly what i did. on the winter beast.

first, make sure it's the oil pan. usually it's something else if you have a significant leak. cam seals, cam orings, crank seal, oil pump seals/gasket, valve cover gaskets. all of those things are much more likely to cause problems than the oil pan gasket.

 

the problem is, they all drip oil which eventually ends up at the back of the motor and around the oil pan lip, making it look like an oil pan problem even if it isn't. check it out carefully.

 

 

if you do need to replace the pan gasket, they're a pain. have to jack the engine up like they said to get clearance for the bolts and clearance for the sump and baffles in the oil pan. well, i'm assuming the EA82 has baffles like the XT6. if so, you need a lot more clearance to get it off than it looks like because you can't see the sump/baffle clearance inside the pan.

I am fairly sure that it is the oil pan gasket that is leaking. Oil is on the bottom of motor and seems to start from front of oil pan. The gasket bolts were somewhat loose, about a full turn, so I tightened the front ones that I could get to, but the leak continues. The oil pan seems near impossible to squeeze out of the space, but I have not had a chance to jack up motor yet. Any caution to be taken when dealing with the motor mounts? Thanks.

if it's from the front of the pan, it could easily by the oil pump gasket, seal, or crank seal. do you know the condition of those, if the timing belt or those items have ever been replaced?

 

 

if it is the oil pan, then leave lots of time. the old gasket is a pain to get off and try to make sure the oil pan bolt holes are all flush on the top. if they are indented "UP", they cut into the new gasket and don't seal well. it's quite often a newly replaced oil or trans pan gasket will leak because of this.

A wire wheel on a drill is you're friend for removing the old cork gasket.

 

I will bet that most of that oil is leaking from the front main and the oil pump though.

 

Those seals leak way more than oil pans, when a soob is leaking alot, it is ussually those front seals, more so than the pans.

Before you dive in, it would be wise to consider the advise here. If you can get the engine all cleaned up good first, verify the location(s) of the leak. (Much easier to find if you didn't have those pesky timing belt covers, I know.) Nothing worse than doing all that work and not fixing it.

 

It might even be worth buying some of that dye and use a UV light (or blacklight) to track that leak down, before you take the oil pan off. That should be last resort.

 

Or just wait until next timing belt change, get the Ebay 'master' kit which includes idlers and all the seals and gaskets for the engine (except rear main and oil pan) for like, $80. Then you can clean it up nice, do all the work once. Then you'll know for sure where (if) it leaks. Only things left would be heads or cam tower and oil pan.

 

I bet you have multiple leaks, like I did. Mine was an oily mess, just as you describe. I had leaks on one cam seal, crank seal, one valve cover, the oil pump, plus after it was clean I found the filler tube was loose. Oil all down the front and burning on the cat. Hard to tell with the timing belt covers in place. I left them off this time.

Well, it looks like it is not the oil pan gasket that is leaking. I power washed under side of car and it looks like there is oil coming from somewhere behind driver side belt cover down low, between oil filter and oil pan. What gasket is behind this cover that could be leaking? Thanks to all for the help.

 

 

A.J.

i thought the oil filter was on the passengers side, guess i'm turned around or thinking EJ's. anyway - drivers side would be a cam seal or cam cap oring.

 

if it's central, like under the large crank pulley, it's the crank seal or oil pump needs resealed.

 

it doesn't really matter because either way the timing belts have to come off for all of these. and since the seals are only a couple dollars it's usually best to replace them all while you're in there. also a good time to put a new water pump in since that's also behind the timing belt.

 

at the very least i'd reseal the oil pump and replace any seals that are wet with oil. and of course probably a good time to install new belts unless they're new.

 

if the belt has any oil on it, then replace them for sure. oil degrades the belt fast. although the belt shouldn't be getting wet unless the oil is really pouring out. i had this happen on a friends car and the new belt lasted less than 10,000 miles after getting oil all over it.

Gary,

 

Thanks for the reply. The oil filter is slightly to passenger side forward. My leak is slightly to drivers side on pulley cover near oil pan. Crank seal or oil pump leak?

My leak is slightly to drivers side on pulley cover near oil pan. Crank seal or oil pump leak?

yep, crank seal or oil pump. most likely a cam seal or cam oring is seeping too, so best to have those on hand when doing this job since they're right in front of you anyway when doing the others.