Write-Up: Oil Pan Gasket Replacement and Aluminum Oil Pan

moldymac wrote:

Another thought comes to mind. Did GM change the 3800 design much over the years? My 87 LeSabre has a steel pan with a built in windage tray and uses a rubber seal. I have never had a leak on that car. I wonder if that pan would fit on the rivs. The only thing that would need to be modded would be the oil level sensor, as that car didn't come with one.

Yes, they definitely did! You're lucky - my Series 2 has the relatively thin-gauge steel pan that needs the 'proper' and non-reusable gasket/windage tray.... $45 bucks for a frickin' gasket!
And since just replacing the belts requires jacking up the engine, those gaskets tend to get 'smushed' and leaky.

Eldo wrote:

And since just replacing the belts requires jacking up the engine, those gaskets tend to get 'smushed' and leaky.

I certainly hope you know better than to jack that thing up from that flimsy lil pan!

Especially with there being that flat piece of block you can use, with the properly shaped piece of wood. I believe Jack the R showed this in his belt/pulley write-up.

Does all that mean that a Aluminum oil pan will in fact fit a 95 series 1?

Anybody?anybody at all??!! free popcorn to the first answer...

OK. well I found a alu pan from Morads.I'll be installing it as soon as I find a good timing cover.I don't recall anyone relating how HEAVY! the "ALUMINUM"pan is? 11 pounds! Man,I hope it fits the 95 without me having to grind any little surrounding bits.
I have a question for those who have the pan though.Are there any tips besides just putting it on with a new gasket?any problem area on the pan that would benefit from a little dab of sealant?

BTW,if anybody is set on keeping a steel pan but hates the flimsiness of the stocker,a 89 Buick Reatta fits perfectly,as you know,but is made way stronger than the series one and two.very heavy steel construction and reinforced all along the lip with 1/4 steel plate along the bolt holes.Only difference is ,it takes a quart less,so if you find one you will have to also take the pick up tube to make it work.

Ok. a couple difference between the alu pan and the series 1 steel pan. The series 2 block,takes a smaller diameter oil pan bolt.The aluminium oil pan bolt is an inch long while the series 1 steel pan bolt is 3/4s long. This means that I have to find inch long bolts to make this happen. the electrical connection is also different. the series 2, has a 2 prong connection while the series1,has one. other than that they should bolt straight up. once i have the correct length of bolts,I'll figure out if the series 1 oil level sensor will fit the series 2 pan.otherwise I'll have to find a junked pig tail and swap em. the mod came to a halt because of not having the correct bolts.tomorrow...

it may depend on which series 2 pan you get. the oil sensor in my 96 is different than the 97+ cars. may even be the same as the 95 sensor.

I got my pan from a 2000 bonnie

ac delco part # D8055 for later model rivs and the bonneville
D8053 for a 1996 riv
no delco listing for 1995 riv and the other brands are different part numbers as well.

doesnt mean you cant wire it up to work, but i would expect it to not plug and play.

yap. looks like another interesting day in the garage....

I have had a small oil leak for a while now. I am pretty positive that my oil leak is coming from the rear main seal. The pan bolts all look dry and the torque converter dust cover is covered in oil. Up until now I haven't given it much thought, aside from maintaining the oil level. But recently I've gotten a huge puddle under the car, the size of small dessert plate as opposed to a quarter sized puddle it had before. Its only happened twice and it was about 10 days apart and it hasn't happened since. Anyone ever heard of a intermittent oil leak, and what could it be???

(Not sure where this belongs so I put it here... )

Well... it could depend on the oil pressure, the temperature of the oil, the average RPM, the outside temp (causing the leaky gasket to deteriorate), the time that you run the car (for example driving the car to days in a row and then wait one day, etc.) and if most likely the oil pan bolts are dry but the TCC dust cover is full in oil it will 95% coming form the rear main seal. Double check if it is actually engine oil and not tranny oil.

There is a video on youtube from scottykilmer.com showing how to temporarily seal oil leaks.

rk0ehn wrote:

There is a video on youtube from scottykilmer.com showing how to temporarily seal oil leaks.

I actually tried that stuff to stop the leak initially 'cause pulling the tranny to fix the RMS is a little too costly at the moment. But I believe that product may have made it worse.
Not saying anything about Scotty, I like his videos and he has some good advice, but like any additive, it doesn't always work.

BMD wrote:

rk0ehn wrote:

There is a video on youtube from scottykilmer.com showing how to temporarily seal oil leaks.

I actually tried that stuff to stop the leak initially 'cause pulling the tranny to fix the RMS is a little too costly at the moment. But I believe that product may have made it worse.
Not saying anything about Scotty, I like his videos and he has some good advice, but like any additive, it doesn't always work.

I feel for you.

When I had my trans removed and overhauled I asked the shop to replace the rear main **as a maintenance item** (car had ~100,000 miles on it) with a Timken or better seal.

At 225,000 and ***no*** drips whatsoever I'm happy.

Albertj

yes you are right sometimes it doesn't work.

In a cavalier that I previously owned I had a blown head-gasket and used a "sealer" but it actually clogged most of the cooling system passages

hmm if that's the case, you will have to drop the tranny and replace the seal
unless you want to spent money on buying oil qts every time you are low in oil eventually with the time It could cause damage to the engine if you are low in oil.

Well found my leak ( I hope ), my garage floor is cement and slightly porous and dusty, so when any leak occurs, the colour is somewhat discolored by the dirty floor. Every time a saw the leak it had a very dark colour and oily consistency to the touch. But the other day I saw a coolant puddle underneath the black plastic elbow coming out of the LIM. I guess the coolant was making its way down and was washing whatever oil had seeped out of the pan and ended up mixed up on the floor. So I pulled the Accessory Belt Tensioner with the elbow and replaced it with a new one. The old elbows' O-rings were shot, completely flattened after about a year. So anyway, that big puddle has stopped and the rear main seal leak I had is gone, apparently the AT- 205 Re-Seal worked! Now I just have a small leak that seems to be working their way up a couple of pan bolt threads. Will hopefully fix that with some high pressure, high temp thread sealant from Permatex.

BMD wrote:

Well found my leak ( I hope ), my garage floor is cement and slightly porous and dusty, so when any leak occurs, the colour is somewhat discolored by the dirty floor. Every time a saw the leak it had a very dark colour and oily consistency to the touch. But the other day I saw a coolant puddle underneath the black plastic elbow coming out of the LIM. I guess the coolant was making its way down and was washing whatever oil had seeped out of the pan and ended up mixed up on the floor. So I pulled the Accessory Belt Tensioner with the elbow and replaced it with a new one. The old elbows' O-rings were shot, completely flattened after about a year. So anyway, that big puddle has stopped and the rear main seal leak I had is gone, apparently the AT- 205 Re-Seal worked! Now I just have a small leak that seems to be working their way up a couple of pan bolt threads. Will hopefully fix that with some high pressure, high temp thread sealant from Permatex.

I just had to change the exact coolant elbow because it was also leaking coolant. I had changed it a couple of years ago when I changed the LIM gasket. I had the same problem, the old elbow's o-rings were flattened. Don't know it would happen, but ended up replacing the tensioner at the same time.

Those o-rings should not be wack in a year - sounds like a parts supplier is cheaping out on the replacements.

Make sure you pick out all the broken pieces of the old elbow before you put the new one in!!! They can be tricky to retrieve.

I searched, but can't find a write-up for a simple oil pan removal for inspection. Seems I need to remove some transaxle gear.
Is there a write-up with this info somewhere here?
Thanks in advance.

Hey when I replaced my engine oil pan I went off of this writeup. Take a look and it should help. My oil pan had rusted out and needed replacing before my driveway looked completely trashed with oil stains. It wasn't too difficult. The only problem I encountered was that the heads to the bolts had rusted out. I couldn't get like 3 of them off. I had to hammer a smaller size socket onto the head of the bolts and was successful removing the remaining 3 bolts. Good Luck



https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t5082-write-up-oil-pan-gasket-replacement-and-aluminum-oil-pan

Thanks Ruben.
That should do the trick.
I expecting rust won't be a problem on this FL undercarriage.

Must be nice to have salt free roads.. Our icy winters are brutal on an undercarriage. I'm suffering the effects of the salt on the subframe bushings and undercarriage.

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been looking around her to see anything on replacing the oipan and gasket in my car. Has anyone done it WITHOUT puting the car on a lift? Realy dont feel like paying out the ass for labor.