Changing oil pan gasket

[89accordlxi]

How hard is it to change the oil pan gasket? Mine is leaking pretty badly. Is it something I should try to tackle myself or is it cheap enough to just have my honda dealer do it?

peace out..

[88WhiteLX-i]

I have to replace mine as well. I haven't done it yet but, from what I have heard, if you have the time and the place to work on it it's not that bad and pretty straight forward. The things that I have heard are make sure that the 3 bolts from the y-pipe are sparyed with some kind of bolt penetrater before hand, the pan is going to be stuck to the block so get a rubber mallet to smack it loose, and make sure you get all of the old gasket off before you put the new one on, also make sure you torque sequence your bolts when putting the new gasket and or pan back on.

[89accordlxi]

Thanx for the good tips, Whitelx-i. Anyone else?

Peace..

[offthahook]

Do NOT overtorque the bolts. It's like 7# per bolt I think...

[shepherd79]

i did it this summer. took me hole day from sunrise till midnight. i wasn't rushing eather. anyway, here are the tips. make sure it is your oil pan gasket that leaks, it could be that the breather hose on the back is busted. mune was hard as candy. so i had to replace it. second make sure it is not valve cover gasket that leaks, it could just be dripping down the block and onto oilpan.
if it is oil pan gasket, than here are the tips. make sure you have enought room to slide under the car. the beam that is under the engine and in the middle of the the engine can be removed, and you should remove anyway.
try using impact wrench on exhaust. this way you won't break the bolts.
the other thing make sure you have some gasket sealer. you will have to putt some of it on each end of the gasket.
oh yeah, most important one, DO NOT OVER TORQUE THE OILPAN BOLTS.

[ACCORD EX]

BTW i though mine was leaking and it turned out to be the MAIN FRONT CRANK SEAL ! which was spraying oil around the whole pan ! :(

MIKE

[Greg]

You know, if you want to have a better idea of where the leak is coming from then:

1) jack the front of the car up
2) clean all oil drips w/brake spray cleaner and rags
3) put it on the ground and go drive it for a while
4) jack it up again and see if the oil drips are more localized.

Everyone else gave good advice above!

I'd also add that if you have trouble w/exhaust bolts, torch 'em. For this stuff, you can get one of those portable MAPP torches, and fry the bolts for a while to heat them up. It should burn some rust off. Then have a ratchet ready to start turning the bolt while it's still hot.

This is better than breaking off the bolt head!!! Just be careful not to set anything else on fire. Wear safety goggles and leather gloves if you got 'em.