Oil Pump Removal - I'm Stuck.

[Cyberkreig]

Hey SR forums; Long time no post.

So I'm pulling my oil pump. I've taken out all the bolts, including the two behind the baffle plate in the oil sump.

Sooo, it isn't actually possible to pull the front cover and pump with the upper oil pan still attached, is it? (Motor is in car)

[inkslingers13]

theres 2 bolts in the head, under the valve cover, i just pulled and broke mine yesterday, one of them is almost impossible to get to, its under the cam gear and CAS its a *****, but good luck i hope i helped

[Cyberkreig]

The head is off the motor. The front cover is lose and can be moved around, but it cant be pulled off. it seems that the oil pump itself is hung up on the upper pan.

I did remember to unbolt the pickup.

[Koshin]

Have fun with that one. Just helped my buddy with his... good luck man. It is mad easier out of the car, lol

[T-rev]

the front cover is held to the upper oil pan by 2 bolts. You can get at them from under the car, they're near the oil pickup

[Cyberkreig]

Thanks for the responses so far.

I have allll the bolts off the front cover, it is lose and can be moved around. But it is not free. It seems to be traped by the crank and the oil pump protrusion on the bottom. Is this just a wiggle it around situation?

[WONit]

You are gonna have to remove the upper oil pan. there is no way around that. It is possible to force it off,but you risk bending the front cover. Just about impossible ,if not totally impossible to get it back on with the upper oil pan bolted on. I just removed mine 2 times in the last 2 weeks.

[T-rev]

you can avoid removing the upper oil pan since you have the head off (you need one, either the head or pan off) I got my cover off without removing the oil pan using a gear puller, however I had the engine out of the car at the time.

One trick I noticed done by nissan was this. The bottom left hand corner of the front cover has a notch in it, almost inviting a screwdriver, wedge, knife, etc.. something pointy, to get between the cover and the block (the block is nice and hefty there too;) That helped me get my cover started a lot! If it wasnt for that, well I would have had a hellova time. Weird thing was, that notch wasnt on the new pump I installed, weird.

[inkslingers13]

also the crank bolt will stop it from coming out

[Hijacker]

The main problem with pulling the front cover and not the oil pan is that you break the gasket seal for the upper oil pan. No matter what you do, you will always have a leak at the corners of the front cover and upper pan because the new gasket maker won't create a total seal against the old gasket maker. You have to have an unbroken bead.

[inkslingers13]

so what are you post to do then?

[WONit]

Drop the upper oil pan. I personally didnt pull it all the way off,just lowered it enough to get the front cover off. Dont have any oil leaks YET,but its only been a couple days. Be sure to put the 2 bolts through the rear pf the pan to help you get it down. There is 1 bolt that is a pita on the driverside directly above the steering rack. you can barely get a wrench on it.

Other than that its pretty easy strait forward job. Took me about 2hrs to do the timing job and re-assenble. that was moving slow without any air tools.

[codyace]

As copied from this post:

"front cover/oil pump replacement"

zerothread?id=317380

There is NO need at all to disconnect the steering rack.

It's actually a very very easy job, once you look at the situation.

You WILL need to lower the center cross member. Now, don't let that scare you .... it's actually kinda easy.

1. Jack the car up in the air to the point that you can essentially slide under the tires without a creeper (a comfortable part). Put it on jackstands then. Remove tires. Locate the 2 subframe bolts on each side (17mm irrc) and spray them with PB blaster or WD40 whatever

2. Drain oil

3. From underneath, remove motor mount bolt on each side.

4.Disconnect both left and right side tension arms. If yours are gooey, replace them with bushings, or SPL Tension Arms. No cheapy crap. Repsray the 4 subframe bolts with WD40

5. Disconnect left and right lower control arm from crossmember/subframe. They will now dangle all over, as will the hub/coilover/brake assembly.

6. Disconnect the 4 bolts holding the steering rack onto the crossmember. You don't need to disconnect any lines, just the rack from the cross member. Respray the 4subframe bolts again with WD40.

7. On the cross member, you'll need to take off the two bracket securing the powersteering loop (10mm bolts)

8. Now, with everythign pretty much out of the way aside from the crossmember, you can now locate those 4 subframe bolts. DO NOT REMOVE THEM YET. They should be pretty well soaked in WD40. Using a breaker bar, (1/2 drive obviously) or an impact gun, JUST BREAK THEM LOOSE/LOOSEN THEM. You just want to get them initial 'unfroze' of rust and corrosion. Spray them again with WD40.

9. Take your jack, and put it under the car (handle sticking out under front bumper. Jack up against that center crossmember till it touches. Now slowly jack it up SLIGHTLY. Just enough so you ntoice the engine move slight up away from the mounts.

10. Now, get a third jackstand, and place it under the Bellhousing of the transmission. Make sure you've got enough room to take out the lower oil pan bolts that go through the transmission. There is like a center rip on the bellhousing that you should alingn with the jackstand. This will be used to supoprt the engine once the crossmember is lowered.

11. Once the jackstand is under the transmission, and the jack is still tight on the crossmember under the engine, you'll want to remove those 4 (2 L and 2 R) subframe/crossmember bolts. Once removed, you'll now lowere the front jack so that the assmebly rests on that third jackstand you placed. Once the bellhousing is on the jackstand, you acn carefully lower the pump jack. If you're lucky, that subframe will follow the jack down, but more than likely you'll probably hafta jigglejaggle it out, but it will come out. It's not heavy, but not light...be aware of your noggin when it comes crashing down.

12. Now you've got MORE than plenty of access to tear apart the engine. Remove the lower pan. Remove the pickup and be sure to catch that gasket.

13. Take off Valvecover, and CAS

14. Using a 10mm with a universal, remove the two front cover bolts that stick up into that area under the cams. You can get them out/loosend, but the drivers side one won't be able to be removed. Thats ok though.

15. Remove all of the bolts in the front cover.

16. Remove the two bolts from underneath that go into the front cover from inside the oil pan

17. Remove the upper oil pan inspection cover

18. Remove those two little nuts in there that connect to the rear main seal housing.

19. Remove the bolts around the upper oil pan, and pry it off.

20. Now pry off the front cover.

21. Remove all silicone from the surfaces, inspect everything while it's all off, and then put it all back on. Remember to use PERMETEX ULTRA Gray. Also remember to apply it on the headgasket where it contacts the front cover/oil pump.

....I think that covers it all....basic 'how to'. You should be able to get that all done in an hour or so if you know what you're doing and know the car well. Maybe 3-4 if you're new at it?

have fun!

[sldewyz]

ok...i kno old thread but this came up durin a search. my sr is just built and its leakin from where the oil pump cover and head gasket meet. i didnt use silicone around it ...FAIL i kno. is there a quick fix that some of yall know of or is it pull head clean out then silicone then re-install? any help would be greatly appreciated!

[2projects2many]

Nope. I fought this whole ordeal a few months ago when I did my swap. Had everything in and no oil pressure. I refused to remove the engine again, and opted to take the front cover off while in the car. It was a chore, but doable. The only problem once reinstalled was a leak at the top corners under the head. I loosened the cover and scraped and cleaned the best I could and reapplied silicone, but it still leaks to this day (5 months later) It's a small leak, and hasn't even gone through a quart of oil in 5 months, but it still sucks. I'll pull the engine in a year or so, and fix it right (probably when I blow my T-25