how hard would it be to replace a oil pan gasket????

[xS-13x]

hey i think my oil pan gasket has a leak? it looks like there is oil spray all over the block and bottom half of the engine bay. so would i have to pull the whole engine out? or could I just jack the car up and put the engine lift on it to hold it up and pull the pan and replace the gasket or am i just stupid and need to take this to a shop? and how much u think it would be?

[vancouverbc]

not sure about the 89-90 but there is a good article on removing oil pan on dohc in the timing chain tutorial in tutorials in my signature.

i think i recall someone saying they resealed oil pan with pan just loosened.

look for oil pan removal link in this article

zerothread?id=255023

[Wc240]

you can do it withiut removing the motor. youi will have to disconnect the sway bar and push it outa the way, with a little persuasion,m itll happen. be careful putting it back in. once you get it upthere, make sure the gasket didnt move

[xS-13x]

ok thanks.

[vancouverbc]

ok thanks.

what year are we dealing with?

the following pertains to the sohc

If you have to drop the pan, now is as good a time as any. Raise the front of the car up and support it firmly (Jackstands). Make sure the parking brake is on etc. Remove the nuts (one per) on the motor mounts (lower). Remove the engine to trans brackets, one per side, both held on with a mixture of 14mm nuts and bolts. Now place a floor jack under the front edge of the transmission, I used a long 4x4 (with the car on the lift) but if your's is low (remember, the higher the better) just use a small block, and jack the engine/trans up as high as they will go without beginning to raise the entire vehicle. Now remove all the oil pan bolts (iirc there's 10 of 'em, 10mm). Pry the pan down. Once it's down (setting on the x member) you'll have to remove the oil pickup tube. It's a pain. Two 12mm bolts on the flange of the pickup and one 10mm bolt holding the support to the crank girdle on the drivers side. Once the pickup is unbolted (just let it fall into the pan) you should be able to work the pan out to the front. You may experience clearance issues with the sway bar. If you do, just unbolt the brackets and let it hang down. Clean out the pan (It'll be full of all kinds of crap, depending on how far the destruction of guides/tensioner/chain etc had gone) and reinstall it (using RTV). Installation is reverse of removal, be sure to clean up the oil pickup too, and don't forget to re-install it, or your engine will die a quick and painful death! If you want, you can save the installation of the pan until after you've r&r'd the timing cover, because the front two oil pan bolts go into the timing cover, but that's up to you. The engine can be lowered back into place while the pan is removed with no problems, so if you want to save the pan install until the timing chain job is done you can do that. Enough with the pan, back to the timing chain!