I have to replaced my oil pan, and have choosen next week to begin pounding away at it. I have a new pan, gasket, and the u-joint for my ratchet.

What are some tips and tricks to pulling that bad-boy off? I know I'll have to remove the engine mount on that side and support the engine with my jack while I do that. What size bolts are going into the pan? I'm going to pick up some extras because I know I'll probably strip a couple.

What's the best way to go about do the whole replacement?

 

I can't see you stripping an oil pan bolt.. There probably only on there with about 5-10ft lbs of torque. If you do, your turning the wrong way using way to big of socket haha.
Putting on a new oil pan isn't the hardest thing in the world, it's pretty straight forward..lol

 

Ah, cool. I was hoping they wouldn't be too bad. I'm still real pissed at myself for ******* the drain plug up by cranking it the wrong way, lol.

The mess it's going to make is also going to be an issue. Hehe.

 

I've stripped an oil pan bolt. Or atleast It is really bad where it seems like it'll turn forever.

Be careful at what you do. Most likely it'll be fine since they are all really "lubed"

I want to replace my gasket because I fucked up and used the wrong sealant and now i have a nice oil progression down my frame rails. I'm too lazy to hoist the engine though and pull it. :P

 

I don't think you need to pull the engine to replace the oil pan..

 

Here is what I figured doing mine. Three pans done...,no leaks...

First, use a gasket. Be careful you do not use to much force prying off the pan or you will bend it. Make sure you check the pan for being true before you reinstall it. Make sure you clean the mating surfaces the best you can. Dont forget to use a diagnoal patern when torquing down the bolts.

And most of the RTV needs a 24 hour cure time before you use it! Dont mess around with that and make sure it has plenty of time to cure.

James

 

LOL tell that to someone that has worked at a shop, like me. Yea right 24 hours my ***, more like 20min max, and we have never had leaking problems. No one has came back saying the part we sealed is leaking. 24 is for it FULLY cure, just because its not FULLY cured doesnt mean it wont work.

 

Do you usually RTV yours in addition to the gasket? I have a paper gasket that came with the pan (I bought the whole thing from Mr. Ressurection ).

I did clean the pan and all the attached sensors a little bit ago, and sprayed the outside down with some high-temp enamel to keep it clean.

 

Yeah, I did RTV in addition to the gasket.

Hell, I give it 24 hours cause I don't even wanna chance having to do that pita job twice.

 

your gonna need a swivle and a extention, and to jack up the engine somehow, because as soon as you undo those motormount bolts its gonna drop a copule inches and break your mount. so get a peice of wood under there or a engine hoist to hold it up. to get the bolts that are by the stearing you gonna need the swivle and an extention. it helps alot to jack up the engine a little to get to those ones

 

My game plan was to put the car up on my nice high jackstands on the front, use a block of wood and my bigger jack to prop the engine right after the oil pan on the tranny, and then go to town on replacing the pan. I'm going to drill a hole in the bottom to drain the oil out since my plug is fucked.

I do have lots of extensions, and one of those universal swivel joints as well, so it should go pretty easily. I'll do a thin bead of rtv in addition to the gasket as well. I usually run the bead, then lightly bolt the item on, let the RTV cure for ~15 minutes, then fully torque everything together.

 

There's a complete set of instructions for removing the oil pan in the Lubrication System chapter of the FSM.

 

Cool, took a look at that and it's pretty straight-forward. The only two things confusing me are 1. why does the FSM tell you to remove the cooling fan? and 2. Does the engine mount bolt just thread into the oil pan, or is there a nut on the other side? It's too cold for me to go look myself.

 

I just jacked up the engine via the tranny. Better than getting an engine hoist.

 

So it doesn't hit the fan shroud when you lift the engine.

The bolt goes through the oil pan into the engine's center plate.

 

The FSM is FREE in www.iluvmyrx7.com
It tells you what to remove . You all should read that stuff. Again, it's FREE.

 

Man it sounds so complicated... but it's really not! I think...

When I pulled my engine (which means I didn't have to deal with the complication of removing the engine mount...) I took off the oil pan while it was on the hoist... the bolts are small 10mm (I'm almost positive but going off crappy memory) and there's a billion of them. You probably don't care about the old oil pan so do whatever... if you were worried about it I'd take start in the middle of the front of the pan, take off a bolt, then take off the corresponding bolt on the other side of the engine... rinse and repeat until they're all out... basically just as a precaution that you get half of the bolts out only on one side and somehow the pan comes off and puts all its weight on the remaining side of bolts. It probably won't happen, but I'd rather play it safe. After I got them all out it was still on, so I did the screwdriver thing (see below).... DON'T PRY! Don't punch into one place and the pry it open, just tap the screwdriver in, then take it out do a spot 1" down from that one... and go all the way around like that. Don't pry though, you could damage the housings or irons.

What I did was, gently with a mallet and a flathead screwdriver... nothing that big though, a wedge of any kind will work... and lightly tap it in... keeping in mind that you don't want to be all retarded and start punching lines into your housings or plates... but it's not surgery obviously... the likelyhood of you damaging something is low. And like I said, make your way around and eventually the pan will fall right off... you'll probably want to clean off the mating surface... there'll still be a fair amount of oil in there too, so be ready for it. (in the pan, about half full probably)

Clean the surfaces, throw that pan on there...

Follow the Mazda manual on the rest though... I don't know if you're supposed to RTV it on there, or if the bolts need lubrication or whatever... haven't put mine back on yet haha... probably in a few days.

Good luck =)

--Gary

 

If you do a search for "oil pan" under my name, you will find several of my rantish posts concerning oil pan replacement while in the car. But to summarize:

1. Get ready for a back breaking pain in the *** like you will rarely experience
2. You will need a small 10MM u-joint socket
3. Remove BOTH engine mounts and raise the engine up several inches by jacking the transmission
4. Replace ALL your bolts with stainless, using large amounts of antiseize.
5. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN! The holes in the rotor housing and front cover are VERY easy to stip.

If you do strip a hole, get a stud and JB-Weld it in there. It's not under much torque, so it will be fine.

6. Use large amounts of RTV (I like copper) as well a stock gasket. Tighten in a staggered fashion, in 3 steps.

Have fun.

 

Ah, one of the masters speak.

By antisieze, do you mean a threadlocker?

 

No, I mean antiseize. Don't even think of using threadlocker.

 

I got off a bit earlier then normal today, started the replacement at ~5pm, and ended at 9pm.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The hardest part was getting to those front bolts. I ended up using a standard 10mm wrench to get in there, the u-joint I grabbed was too big to fit. The new pan went on without a hitch, and I just want to wait for the RTV to fully cure before I put oil in it. I also need to buy a new bolt to go through the engine mount and into the frame. I managed to destroy the one that was there.

Here's some pics, hehe.

Underside (very exciting,e h?)


And the casualties: