Oil Pan Removal

[Gerardjg]

I finally had some time this weekend to play with the 95 J, The one that acquired low oil pressure in less then a mile of driving after all front sprockets engine seals and all other items in the T belt kit were replaced. The Compression was all good the numbers are listed below, the engine turns freely T belt is on correctly. The engine will run and sound great for about 2 minutes then the Low PSI light begins to flicker and top end gets noisy. Next I will look at the oil pump screen and Relief valve both in the oil pan. btw the Oil pump is turning.


Now for my question has anybody ever removed the oil pan? I am up to the part in the manual which says to remove lower engine mounting nuts, remove stab bar and hoist engine prior to unbolting oil pan.

That is where I am confused how much do I hoist? a couple of inches or Just hold the engine weight.



Compression
#1 153 #4 160
#2 150 #5 155
#3 164 #6 150

[Infinitiguy19]

I would guess that the hoist just needs to hold the weight of the engine.

[GerryO]

Looking forward to hearing just how to pull the pan and about what you find after pulling it.

Pulled the pan off of one of my son's MR2s and felt a lot better about having done so, especially after cleaning out all of the gunk inside, the oil pump inlet and the baffle plate, plus the pan didn't leak after we replaced it.

Can imagine oil not getting to the top-end for various reasons:
- clogged inlet screen/pick-up
- bad pump
- excessive air/foaming in the pan
- or getting trapped up top and not draining back into the pan, due to sludge/varnish up top.

[Gerardjg]

My friend with the hoist failed me for this weekend, I
did get 16 of the 17 pan bolts out, #17 may be why you need the hoist
I can not find it visually , may need to take the steering rack down to see it
if the rack was down the rear bolts would have been easy to get at.

I will update when I get there

[Gerardjg]

I got a hoist today and raised the engine as high as possible by only disconnecting the items in the oil pan removal section of the manual.
The front of the pan will come down about 4 inches, but the rear external lip of the pan sits in a plate sandwiched between the engine and the transmission.
This is preventing the oil pan from lowering or pulling forward. Next step Is either junk yard or pulling the transmission. Will keep you posted I may try to
get the oil pump off in that 4 inch space if i can get the pick up tube disconnected.

[yodawill2000]

"The front of the pan will come down about 4 inches, but the rear external lip of the pan sits in a plate sandwiched between the engine and the transmission"
I'm confused and excuse my ignorance.
But the engine is at the front of the transmission. ??
How can the rear be anywhere close to the engine ???

[Gerardjg]

"The front of the pan will come down about 4 inches, but the rear external lip of the pan sits in a plate sandwiched between the engine and the transmission"
I'm confused and excuse my ignorance.
But the engine is at the front of the transmission. ??
How can the rear be anywhere close to the engine ???

[yodawill2000]

Ah Gotcha
Told ya I was ignorant !!!

[Gerardjg]

I just did the math considering the dollars and the time I have to work on it. I decided against pulling the motor and rebuilding.
Going to part out what I can for the 97J and and bury her in the back yard with the cat

[J30_Kidd]

i raised my engine up as high as possible without breaking any hoses and was able to slip the oil pan out, i didn't pull the stab bar off either though the trans was removed, when you look at some of these service manuals you can tell the pics are probably used for others cars that use this engine in a fwd setup from how it looks. I keep asking why do i have to take the stab bar off even as i was putting the engine back in. lol

[Gerardjg]

My Son want to give it a shot and he will remove the transmission tomorrow

[Gerardjg]

Latest Update

We removed lower transmission mount bolts and gussets,and was able to lower the plate. This freed the Oil Pan and allowed it to drop but I still can not remove it from the car. hoisted as high as it will go.
This gave me plenty of room to get out the oil pump and pick up tube. Pick up tube screen was 70-80% clogged with what looked like carbon. No sludge in the pan other then around the upper corners. Oil pump looks good will clean everything and reassemble. Keep you updated.

[yodawill2000]

Good job !!
Glad you didn't scrap the ole Gal !!

[J30_Kidd]

now that i've thought about it, during the process of raising the motor up to pull the pan i had then decided to just pull the motor at that time and later took the oil pan off after i removed the motor.... ekkk sorry bout that. You may have to disconnect some items to raise it more to get it out all the way. Glad you didn't scrap the J

[Gerardjg]

I think she will survive, just started the J and let it idle till the temp came up to normal, a few wots and held it at 3K for a minute and idled again for about 10 minutes no low oil pressure light and the J ran as quiet as she did before the oil psi issue. Just have to put the hood on let her down and take it for a ride, That will have to wait till next weekend .

[GerryO]

Congratulations on some really nice, hard work. I'd be curious to know how so much sludge came to be in the pan (infrequent oil changes/cheap oil?) and about the condition/quality of the oil filters someone had been using. Recently went a couple thousand miles longer between filter changes on our Saturn and noticed a small hole in the membrane of the old filter cartridge.

And maybe another oil and filter change a few hundred miles from now would be a good idea.

[Gerardjg]

I have had this car for the last 50k and always used Mobil 1 3-4k and KN filters the prior owner got the car at 65k and always used Wally world or Jiffy Lube every 3k Dino Oil. It may have been sludge but it looked more like carbon tiny black beads clogged in the screen which after soaking the pick up inlet over night it still had to be scraped off. I do plan on a oil and filter change again before she goes back on the road.

[GerryO]

I have had this car for the last 50k and always used Mobil 1 3-4k and KN filters the prior owner got the car at 65k and always used Wally world or Jiffy Lube every 3k Dino Oil. It may have been sludge but it looked more like carbon tiny black beads clogged in the screen which after soaking the pick up inlet over night it still had to be scraped off. I do plan on a oil and filter change again before she goes back on the road.

Wow. I'd look into the possiblity of Jiffy Lube adding somehow contaminated oil or some sort of fancy oil filter coming apart.

[Michael Foster]

I finally had some time this weekend to play with the 95 J, The one that acquired low oil pressure in less then a mile of driving after all front sprockets engine seals and all other items in the T belt kit were replaced. The Compression was all good the numbers are listed below, the engine turns freely T belt is on correctly. The engine will run and sound great for about 2 minutes then the Low PSI light begins to flicker and top end gets noisy. Next I will look at the oil pump screen and Relief valve both in the oil pan. btw the Oil pump is turning.


Now for my question has anybody ever removed the oil pan I am up to the part in the manual which says to remove lower engine mounting nuts, remove stab bar and hoist engine prior to unbolting oil pan.

That is where I am confused how much do I hoist? a couple of inches or Just hold the engine weight.



Compression
#1 153 #4 160
#2 150 #5 155
#3 164 #6 150

Is there enough room to pull the oil pan out? Do you need the engine to come out in doing so?

[Gerardjg]

The Manual says you can, I could not get it out, I had the engine hoisted until it would not go any higher and I could not clear the crank shaft.
I was able to remove the pick up tube and clean the pan this way, I also added a washer under the spring in the oil pump
to increase the oil pressure. An after thought if you separate the engine and transmission the oil pan may come out.

I wrote the car off at this time so was in no rush 6 + months on the hoist now my son has been using it daily go to school.