Well gang, at the time of writing I am wore the hell out. I have been working on my ZXT all afternoon.
Last summer (2004) I removed my oil pan to weld in a bung for my Autometer Oil Temp Gauge, plus the pan gasket was leaking. I then sealed it up using Permatex Ultra Grey WITHOUT a gasket, everything was fine until a few weeks ago I noticed that oil was weaping past the Ultragrey onto my garage floor....SIGH...I hate oil leaks.....double SIGH
To get the oil pan out last year, I removed:
1) The exhaust
2) Driveshaft
3) Tranny and shifter
4) Clutch, flywheel and shield
On other words ALOT of work....many people said Yasin all you needed to do was remove the engine mounts and hack up the engine....
So fine.....I did that removed the engine mounts and jacked the engine up under the crankshaft pulley as high as it could go, the engine is right up against the tranny tunnel firewall. Well guess what....I STILL cannot get the freaking oil pan out.
I tried every possible angle to coax it out and NO LUCK. Its close, but I need another inch approx as it is hitting the very base of the tranny bellhousing when I try to slide it backwards. Part of the problem as well, is the damn rack and pinion x-member is also in the way.
This has to be one of the trickiest things to do on a ZXT with engine still in the car...cripes!
All is not lost though....
I actualy have lots of working room with the engine about 3-4inches off the mounts and I was still able to successfully clean off all the hardened Ultra Grey off the oil pan (still took ALOT of time), luckily alot of it comes off in long stringy sections and I used a mirror between the block and the oil pan surface to ensure the oil pan surface is clean and ready for re-installation. I also made sure that there were no stringy sections of Permatex that fell into the oil pan.
I can move the oil pan around alot..just not enough room for complete removal. I came close to removing the tranny etc etc again, but there is no need as there is no need to really completely remove the oil pan for this particular job.
At the same time I replaced the turbo drain gasket (started to sweat oil) and hose clamps to the pan.
No messin' around I am ordering a Nissan Motorsports Competition Oil Pan Gasket tomorrow and should have it all back together by next weekend hopefully and hopefully NO more leaks.
Frustrated and VERY tired - Yasin