Ground Zero Oil Pan = JUNK Need Help......
 

The Ground Zero oil pan that I put on my RX7 is total junk. After trying to find the 2 oil leaks I have had since I put the car together, I have finally found where the oil is leaking from. The oil is leaking through the pan itself! Here is how I found it. I double checked all of the bolts and still couldn't find the leak. The weird thing is that the oil pan will be soaked in oil after it sits for a few hours and a nice size puddle would be under the car. I wiped down the pan and sat there and watched the pan to see where it was leaking from. Then I saw it. The pan is "bleeding" oil right through it! Ground Zero will be getting a call from me tomorrow. That makes 2 products that I have bought from them that have been messds up in some way.

So my question is if there is a type of sealant I can use to save me from taking out the engine to replace it. Ground Zero did a shit ass job at pouring the mold. I don't know what to do. Steve Kan is coming in 4 weeks and I still have to break in my motor. On top of that, I couldn't even take out the engine now if I wanted to. My buddy with the engine crane moved and I don't have one. So if there isn't some sort of sealant available to spray on the oil pan, GZ will be flying out one of their mechanics to pull my motor for me and replace my oil pan. Good job on making shit parts......... :Kill1:

Suxor. How about a high-temp epoxy on the inside of the pan?

I can't take the pan off without pulling the motor and that is NOT an option for me unless I buy and engine crane or pay a shop. And since there are no good shops in the STL area that rules out that option.

Isn't there something that I can spray on the outside?

How about a stock oil pan? :) I just don't see the reason to upgrade to their pan, not to mention the various problems folks have had with it.

Dale

You don't need to pull the motor, just jack the car up and drop the subframe a few inches.

You can still have Steve dyno your car even if your car leaks.

Higher capacity = nothing but awesome

I've never been a big fan of the oil pan. A couple people have hit something with them and they shattered. They were lucky they didn't lose their engines. Sure, they have more capacity and cooling fins. They also supposedly keep the engine from flexing. But they hang low and I still hear of people complaining about leaks.
Their lower intake manifold I have been interested in for some time, but there doesn't seem any hard evidence at this point that it actually does anything other than moving the intake closer to your turbo/down pipe and leaving a $500 hole in your wallet.

Give Ralph a chance to make things right. He's a pretty stand up guy.
I've never heard of anyone complain of the craftmanship of the pan before. Defects are a part of life and it sounds like it was poorly cast or there was some other issue.
You've got to remember Ground Zero isn't the only one that sells these pans. A-Spec and Pineapple who are highly respected and sell the exact same thing. If it was junk I don't think they all of them would be selling it.

As far as needing a cherry picker to change your oil pan, it's not needed at all. A simple floor jack and some messing around with the sub frame should do the trick for removal. However it will prove more difficult due the increased lenght of the pan.

The same can be achieved in many other ways. From something as exotic as switching to a dry sump to as easy and cheap as using a larger filter.

Yes awsome if it does'nt leak or if you don't rip it off from your car being too low.

Or even a duel oil filter set up.

or bigger oil coolers.

I would like to try fix this by putting some sort of high temp epoxy sealer on the outside of the pan. Does andybody know of anything that will do this? Thanks for all of the quick replies. Eric, even if Steve would tune it with a huge oil leak I still need to get this fixed. It leaks about 1/8 - 1/4 qt of oil overnight.
Thanks for the input.

You could try a couple of different things, but they more than likely woudln't be anything other than a temporary fix. Do you still have you old oil pan kicking around by chance?

Maybe Ground Zero could overnight you a new one? Most epoxy products aren't going to work to well on a hole that has oil constantly dripping from it.

Any pictures of the location, size of the hole?

Yeah I want to see pics of the leak.

Well if I epoxy it, I would drain the oil pan first and let it cure before I put oil back in it. And I don't have my stock oil pan anymore.

Also do yuo think I could have the whole bottom of the oil pan welded. By that I mean putting spot welds on the entire oil pan. Would this work?

I dont think that is a good idea as it is cast and it would have to be tig welded. And it would be easy to blow a hole in it.

I almost bought one of the over-priced things, too

glad I stuck with the stock pan and Gotham oil pan brace

good luck

I thought it was aluminium.... so isolate the spot, where it's dripping from, mark it with a sharpie, and have a bead put on it, and re-check... is an idea.....

I didn't know that was even possible.

Yes, it is aluminium.

You aren't going to be able to spray anything on the oil pan to keep it from leaking the pan is saturated with oil.

Quit screwing around with hair brain ideas and put a stock pan back on the car. It will take a couple of hours.

this is what my friend did on his, make a mini engine hoist " like the one described in the shop manual" to hold the engine, then remove the frame like LUPE said, just an idea

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=178361&stc=1

I have, and have had friends who own the GZ oil pan.. haven't had a single problem with it.

Interesting.

That's weird, two people from St.Louis have now had the same problem with them leaking.