MY oil pan started to gush oil so i replaced the gasket. But when i was putting the pan back in i found that one of my oil pan bolt is striped. I finshed reinstalling the pan any ways. But the oil pan leak just as much oil as before. So i guess i will have to fix that striped bolt? HOw hard is it to retap the bolt hole or helix coil it? And what tools and materal do i need to repair the hole. Thanks in advance!!

 

Get an over sized plug, you can get them at like any parts store...

 

over sized plug??/ i've never heard of it. what is it?

 

Drill the bolt out and tap it. If you have to, tap it a size larger. Also, try using RTV on the gasket to make sure it seals properly..

 

No. Get another drain plug. You don't need to tap it unless you tried forcing it in and screwing up the threads on the oil pan. It's 2 different metals. The drain plug being the softer metal. After so many oil changes , you will need to change the plug.
Any parts store will have it.

 

Na the best and the safeist way to get it out without damaging anything, like drill and other methods is to use the craftmans broken nut remover; this dam thing works great and fast without the yelling, kicking and taking it out on someone else. It be a little costly but its worth it, trust me man dont drill it out, like i did and f@!# the part up and have to buy a new one. Its a craftsman bolt remover, dont get the head bolt remover get the drill bit, it cost about 40 but its worth every penny when ur working on a old engine with stock bolts

 

All right, what are we talking about here? An oil pan bolt, or the drain plug, lol...?

With RTV, it shouldn't be kicking your ***, even with one bolt missing. The oil pan itself is not a stressed panel, hence the little itty bitty bolts that everyone likes to overtorque...

Take everything back off, clean the hell out of the mating surfaces, absolutely no oil residue should remain, put a good 1/8" bead of grey or red RTV on the oil pan, around all the bolt holes & running in the center of the pan lip in between the holes, and the mount bolt areas, let it sit for 5 minutes, install the pan with all the bolts (except the one), and cross-torque the bolts down just enough to get the RTV to start squeezing out on all sides. Stop there, let it sit for another 10 minutes, then cross-torque to the final torque specs. Do not overtorque!

 

yeah do what wayne said, you can also check and see if your pan is really warped by cleaning it off first and inverting it on a flat surface, a piece of glass works nice, if the pan rocks or has huge gaps between the two, i dont know if this is a common problem with oil pans, but ive had a lot of stamped steel tranny pans that were nasty warped

 

been there done that.. had to drill it out, and tap it.
not fun at all.

 

not me. i broke mine off when replacing the gasket, and i ended up breaking the head off the ******. lucky for me i know a pro welder that welded a nut to the rest of the bolt bottom and he just unscrewed it like a normal bolt. thats one way to do it.

 

I was talking about the bolts that holds the oil pan on. ANd the bolt that is striped is right next to the left side engine mount. Sorry about that..... THe reason i didn't put silicon is because the guy at mazdatrix told me not too. Although i did clean the crap out of the pan and mating surface. But i didn't check if is warp or not, since there is not dents on the pan at all. SO you guys really think that one bolt is not the cause of the leak? ANd the engine mount has only 80 to 90 foot pounds of torque on it. Would that effect the sealing?

 

Only if the oil is dripping from the mount bolts...

Do as you wish- I tossed the pan gasket in favor of RTV on my rebuild back in May, and not a single drop has leaked past it yet...Cleanliness before RTV application is the key to success...

 

mmmmmmmmm........ Yeah the mazdatrix guys also said that they are not using an oil pan gasket neither. Maybe i should have listen ehh. But how long does it take you to replace a pan gasket with the engine in the car? Thanks!

 

I've had success, especially on auto trans pans where a gorilla has used an air wrench to tighten them down, with placing a small diameter copper wire into the hole, top to bottom, then install the bolt, The copper is soft enough to let the threads penetrate and "walk" into the hole.

 

I completely agree with WAYNE here...

Cleaning the mating surfaces is THE most important thing...

Just the other day a mechanic at the shop didn't clean a waterpump seal completely... I mean it was OK, but not 100 percnt.

Guess what, even with silicone and the gasket, it leaked. Not big, but did leak. Not acceptable.

WAYNE... I understand on something like an oil pan, you don't really NEED a gasket, but why would you not put one on anyways? Its not like it is going to hurt anything . I guess it would just make me a little more "confident" that I have it there, not just a layer of silicone.

Having a dremel, or some kind of grinder REALLY helps. Anytime at work, we always do Surface - RTV->Gasket->RTV- surface. Except for the guy ******* up with the waterpump, NEVER had anything come back leaking.

Only thing that's ever confused me is metal gaskets... being that I don't do head gaskets (at work), never really use them.

 

Because the oil pan is not structurally strong enough for a gasket to make sense. The torque on the bolts is only what, 10 ft/lbs or so? That's still enough to warp the metal lip of the oil pan, so that it "ripples" between the bolts, not exactly a good surface for a gasket. If the pan was made stronger (thicker), a gasket would work, but it doesn't need to be stronger, it's not what's known as a "stress panel", i.e. it's not really holding anything together. That's why the bolts are so small (which is why everyone keeps breaking them, lol), their only function is to hold the pan in place...RTV also allows more movement between mating surfaces before its bond breaks, unlike a normal gasket.

Also, I clean, or "rough up", all of my mating surfaces with the Scotchbrite gasket remover pads on my pneumatic die grinder, then wipe everything real good with acetone to remove any residues...Those millions of tiny scratches from the scotchbrite help to make one hell of an RTV bond

 

Well the striped bolt is fixed. But the leak turn out to be coming from some where else. It turns out that some one helix coil the bolt before. Or maybe the thread just decide to come out all at ones. Any ways i put a bolt that has the same size threads in and it tigten up. Maybe there was enough threads left over in there to keep it tight. ANy ways........... THe leaking is coming from my oil metering pump. I changed the gasket on there before. But one of the lines or the pump it self is leaking. It turns out that the oil is following the pan and collecting at the end of the pan. SO it lookes like the pan gasket is still leaking. i might get a block off plate for it and run premix for a while since is leaking so much oil. But thanks for all the help. Sorry for the confusion...... It took me 15 min to figura out the leak since there was oil every where. Thanks every one!!