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For MY 280Zx People - Oil Pan Gasket + Pan Removal..UG!


slownrusty

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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

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Guest bastaad525

Kinda hard to explain this.... try to rotate the crankshaft so that there's as little of it hanging out from the bottom of the block as possible. This was the last little bit I needed to get the pan out on mine.

 

 

I'm kinda surprised to hear you got a leak with that ultra grey stuff, when I recently did my pan a lot of people were recommending that to me.

 

I ended up going with a felpro gasket, completely dry on the side that goes up against the block, and I used permatex high tack to hold the gasket to the pan. So far it's remained bone dry (about 600 miles). The real upside was how extremely easy it was to install that way, since I didn't really need to worry about rubbing silicone off when reinstalling it.

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"Part of the problem as well, is the damn rack and pinion x-member is also in the way."

 

5 bolts, 1 on the steering linkage, 4 on the crossmember, Viola, it's outta your way. (You may need to disconnect the outter tie rod ends, but that's not all that hard to do with a pickle fork.) Support it with a jack during the process. NO need to totally remove it, simply lower it out of your way.

 

Refer FSM ST-11 & ST-12. Just make sure to put it back where it came from. (not alot of chance not to)

 

Hope it helps

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I had the same problem on my ZX. The oil pickup tube sticks down too far into the pan. I did what you did and just replaced the gasket with the pan hanging there under the engine. Not fun on your neck.
I've removed the pickup tube with the pan low enough, then removed the pan. Assembly is the reverse.
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