I've been leaking a fair amount of oil all over my driveway, and I think it may be getting worse. I think I'm putting a quart in every 750 miles or so, versus every 1000 or so miles.

I'll come right out and say I don't know what this first thing is, but it doesn;t look like it should be generously coated in oil, like it is.


This next picture is of the front passenger side of the oil pan, I've got what appears to be a missing chunk, and it is traced in yellow.




And this is the front drivers side of the pan, again, it looks like there is a small portion missing, and is circled in yellow.



From the looks of it, if I'm not mistaken, I'll have to get a new oil pan. Would I be right in this assumption?

 

im sorry to say but the oil pan is like that mine is like that to the oil pan gasket is just prolly starting to fail... it is a big pain in the *** to replace/fix i would get a proffesional to do it and the first pic seems to be your OMP system you should get some brake parts cleaner several cans of it and clean everything up then go from there but everything under your car looks to have oil on it so clean everything up and then see where the leaks are coming from....
TwEaK

 

Yeah there is a lot of oil leaking there, but to see if you need a new pan, you would need to pull that one off and use a straight edge and check for flat.

It is not uncommon to have the pan start leaking on both the FC and FD due to the placement of the one engine mount through the pan. There are aftermarket soultions for the FD using a O ring, but with the stock set up and any major length of time it will leak.

 

I paid $8.00 to get my undercarriage washed, and all that happened was water came in through my bad hatch seal, and some oil got displaced... I'm pissed about that.

 

So I went and looked again, got a better viewing angle and all, and my oil pan gasket is failing miserably. The outside edges are shredded and oil is seeping through.

One other thing it might be... maybe... Could the oil pan not be tightened down all the way? The engine is a reman, with less than 5,000 mi, and has a colorful past. It had been in a car that wrecked, the engine was then sold on ebay to the kid I bought the car from, who installed it himself.

 

the pan doesnt need to be torqued down to crazy much ... or else you will strip the bolts

ask me how i know ..

just as long as its snug and not obviously loose it should hold ... its not under much pressure

 

DONT TOUCH THE BOLTS

it literally takes only 10-15 ft lbs to shear one off, they are pretty damn weak. I know from experience,

 

i know from experience also on my motor i stripped 2 of them all i can say is take off the oil pan clean everything up clean the oil pan good get a new gasket and put rtv on both sides of the gasket and reinstall the pan dont put oil in it till the rtv is fully dry...
TwEaK

 

Make my own gasket, or buy one?

 

Buy one..

 

The oil pan is not a hard job and no need to go to a professional to replace it. As for gasket, don't bother. Your best bet is a product called the Rightstuff made by permatex. I used it on my oil pan that I dropped when I took off my front cover. Rightstuff has never failed me. It can be bought at NAPA

 

what exactly needs to be done on replacing the gasket/removing the oil pan???

 

thats the thing you need a jack or engine hoise to remove the motor mount and all the bolts so oviously the motor is going to be in the air if im correct so you need to hold it somehow
TwEaK

 

Im proud to say after a little frustration my FC is leak free. It all started what I thought was an oil pan gasket leak. So with help from Aaron Cakes and his direction to the FSM, I followed the directions for re-re of oil pan with gasket plus sealant. The job really isnt that bad just be patient and do it on a day you have nothing else planned

So as you can imagine i was little miffed when I drove it for a day parked it the garage and the next moring I found a puddle of oil... Back to the drawing board.

The leak appeared to be coming from the OMP. So I wipped out the FSM ordered replacement seals and rebuilt the OMP. Small job a little awkward to get at.

K, now IM really getting pissed when I find another puddle of oil. I decide to do what I should of done from the begining, i went and bought a couple cans of Gunk engine shampoo. Once the engine was clean it was very obvious the front cover gasket was leaking and pretty bad at that.

Wouldnt ya know, to remove the front cover I got to revisit the oil pan and the OMP plus the water pump. Re - re front cover wasnt that bad other than a funny noise that was unexplainable so I ripped it apart to find nothing wrong except when I installed the copper washer on the pully boss it went in off centered. It now has some old school 10A blood in her as I robbed one of my R100 new old stock copper washer, and an RX4 front cover gasket. When it was reassembled the noise wasnt there anymore.

The second time I installed the oil pan I just used RTV blue, let it cure for 24 hrs and the motor is 100% leak free.

From my experience, clean the engine( high pressure not required ), Remove the fan and shroud, thouroughly inspect and dont just jump to conclusions. With the shroud out of the way, all components are easily accesible and youll enjoy the experience a whole lot more.

Just my 2 cents worth and here is the link to the FSM if you dont already have it.
http://www.teamfc3s.org/main/factor...nual/1986_1988/

Cheers Drew

 

Mazdatrix told me that they dont use oil pan or front cover gaskets on their rebuilds, just a bead of silicone.

 

oil pan gaskets are rediculous, dont need one... I never put one on in any of my motors and they have been leak free... I did however put it on my last rebuild since I bougth a gasket set, and man, do I regret that. No I have to remove the oil pan, while it still being in the car.... NEVER USE AN OIL PAN GASKET. Rtv or silicone is all you need.

 

The FSM makes note of an engine under cover... Is this supposed to be below the oil pan? I don't think I have it... am I supposed to?

 

only on 86-87 Sports, and 88 GTU and 88 Turbos

 

Okay, but I still have to remove the fan, right?

 

Nothing is worse than an oil leak, but dude, start up the car, warm it up, go to Wal Mart, purchase 2 cans of super tech Engine Degreaser, drive home. Jack up car, shake can, spray foam on entire area, rinse with running water, not high pressure, repeat process, twice, lower car, start up and drive around block, and then, tell us where the leak is. 93 cents a can, pre tax, and if its not visible, 357 with 2 bullets, or mechanic at 100 bucks an hour. I'll take the two bucks and resend the photos.

 

I figure if it's not visible, it's time for me to learn how these cars work REALLY well.