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Sealing Your Oil Pan
by Dave Disney
disney@utkux.utcc.utk.edu
You have three options:
- Use the gasket dry (no silicon)
- Use the gasket with silicon
- Use only silicon and no gasket.
I've been using the gasket and coating both sides of it with a very small amount of silicon (just use your finger to smear it around good), and I haven't had any trouble with leaks. However, there are two tricks to keeping an oil pan gasket from leaking.
Clean the oil pan and block gasket surfaces very well. Most auto parts places sell these cool little wheels that you can use in an electric drill that are specifically for removing old gasket material. If you can't find one of these wheels, just get a razor blade and be prepared for a lot of scraping.
Don't overtighten the oil pan bolts! Here's a trick thats worked perfectly for me in the past: Use a ratchet to tighten the bolts and only hold it by the head of the ratchet (i.e., don't use the handle as a lever to increase torque). Holding the ratchet in this way, tighten them pretty snugly. An even better way would be to use a small screwdriver that you can put a socket on the end of. The idea is to reduce the amount of torque you can apply to the bolts. Most people seem to think tighter is better, but that'll make an oil pan leak!
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