Oil pan rust

[danronian]

When I first bought my 3g I wire brushed, prepped, and painted the sump of the oil pan since it looked very rusted. Today I was changing my oil and noticed the rest of the pan is also very rusted. Considering the area I live in(NE US), and the miles on the car(148K), should I take off the exhaust pipe and paint the pan, or do these oil pans rust out and should I replace the whole thing. The thing is, I dont know how think this pan is. If it is as thick as a stock chevy 350 pan, the pan is nearly rusted through, but if it is thicker, just paint should be fine. Has anyone else come across with this problem? and if so, how hard is it to replace?

[carotman]

most of the oil pans are the same thickness. they are thinner than a computer case panel

[AccordEpicenter]

I live near buffalo, ny so i know what you speak of. If the rust starts getting pretty flaky and deep you might want to change the pan, they get weak when they start to rust out. To change one you have to drop youre A pipe for your exaust.

[jlaccord89lxi]

eventually, oil may start to seap out through the metal itself. There won't be one hole where oil is leaking, it will just soak the metal and ooze out. Thats what happened to mine, it was rotten.

[smufguy]

the front of the oil pan on my car kinda started to flake out. So what i did was brushed off the rust flakes with a steel brush and wiped it clean and sprayed with rubberized body coat. Man..... this rubberized body coat has a lot of uses.

[danronian]

Thanks for the insight. After taking the car on a three hour trip going 80 mph nearly the entire time at 90 degrees the car didnt burn a drop of oil. So I decided since by the time I get to changing my oil (3,000 miles), the oil level is half way between the holes, I must have a leakage and not burning problem. This has given me the idea that this engine is worth the pain of replacing the rusty pan. So first I am going to go to the junk yard to look for a non rusty oil pan. (I'm sure I can find one since the other day I was looking at a 3g in the same area as I live that was rusted out just as bad as mine and had a non-rusted pan.)