oil pan gasket

[blutroop]

I am doing a clutch and was wondering if the oil pan can be dropped with the trans out? Or does the engine still have to be jacked up to drop it?

[xirdneh]

why remove oil pan? is it leaking, if so are you positive its coming from oil pan gasket?
i have yet to encounter a leaking oil pan gasket

[Petros]

It is a lot easier to get the pan off with the transaxle removed, but it is still a bit of trouble, you can get to all the bolts, but the pan will only drop a few inches. You will have to reach in the front and remove the two 10mm bolts that hold the oil pick-up, and one on each side, so the pick-up will drop into the pan. than you can wiggle it out. Putting it back is the hassel, you have to get the oil pick up screwed back in by working in the gap around the pan. You can loosen the front mounts and raise the engine with a hoist or jack to give you more room.

As Xirdheh points out, the oil pan rarely leaks, usually it drains down from somewhere else and runs around the pan and looks like the pan is leaking. so unless someone had the pan off recently and botched up the seal/gasket, not likely it is the pan that leaks. Or is there another reason you want the pan off?

if you have the trans out you should consider putting in a new rear main seals (behind the flywheel). not an easy job to do if the seal goes bad later.

[blutroop]

My engine was ridiculously greasy so I was gonna replace any gasket I could. I have changed a oil pan gasket on a 4wd bronco like Petros mentioned.. pita. If both of yall say they hardly ever leak then Im not gonna worry about it. Actually I just found that my rough running was actually my front two cylinders not producing power. They have compression (120-130) and spark so the only other thing I can think of would be a vacuum leak? If I cant figure this out I may have to rebuild this 3a.

[xirdneh]

most common oils leaks on 3ac
bad fuel pump
bad distributor shaft "o" ring
old valve cover gasket
old front cam seal
old front main crank seal
bad oil sender

rare leaks
oil pan
head gasket
rear main crank seal
tranny input shaft seal

how do you know that front two cylinders are not producing power?
if they test at 120 and 130 what do 3 and 4 test at?
if 3 and 4 tested at 180 and 180 and 1 and 2 are that much lower i would think the head gasket might be ready to blow

[Petros]

I would not rebuild the engine if you have that compression, the problem is elsewhere. either vac leak, or perhaps a leaky AAP is making the front cylinders way too rich. Have you looked at the spark plugs? see any difference front or rear? the problem is not internal, but either fuel, spark or vac leak (either a vac line, the TVSV is bad, or the intake manifold has a crack or gasket leak). Check all the lines, attachments and fittings, use carb cleaner spary on a running engine to find a vac leak.

Always diagnose the problem BEFORE you try and fix it. Or you waste time and money and will have the same problem.

[blutroop]

I pulled off spark plug wires one by one. 3 and 4 both affected idle, 1 and 2 did not. I verified both plugs were getting spark then I tested compression on 1 and 2. I only tested 1 and 2 since 3 and 4 had power. I also tried switching the wires on 1 and 2 thinking maybe they were crossed by the p.o. The car ran real bad and wouldn't idle without lots of gas. So 1 and 2 are producing some power. I will look for a vacuum leak next. What is the aap and tvsv? will either one of those affect only half the engine?

[lannvouivre]

I'd honestly do the oil pan gasket if the trans is off. If the PO ever touched the gasket and messed it up, then it could leak. If it's the original silicone gasket, it's probably fine. However, the oil pan is so, so much easier to do without the transmission on. I'd recommend a sexy Toyota RTV silicone gasket job. You may need to put a jack under the engine and lift it a teeny-tiny bit to pull it off.

The red Tercel and white Tercel both have had gasket jobs done by the PO. On the red one, they did a cork gasket and it was just horrible and rotten. On the white one, they did a rubber one but none of the fasteners--NONE--were more than finger-tight. I was losing about a quart every hundred miles. It seems I have some kind of affinity with Tercels with sabotaged oil pan gaskets.

[Petros]

go look in the factory service manual to find the AAP (auxiliary acceleration pump, only used during cold starts and if it leaks off it fills the front half of the intake manifold with too much fuel, the first two spark plugs usually are black, you will find the vac lines to it will be full of fuel), easy check, just find the AAP in the pictures in the manual.

The TVSV is that black plastic valve with the bronze base on the coolant outlet (on the front of the head) with all of the vac lines on it. It draws vacuum from the front half of the intake manifold, it is leaks it will make the front cylinders too lean and low power out put. if the brake power booster is leaking or bad it will make the rear two cylinders lean with low power output (I discovered that by accident, I almost pulled the head off when I found the rear two cylinders were not putting out power, but decided to do a compression check just to make sure).