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I have recently changed my oil pan gasket for the second time in 2 weeks. Full disclosure: I did not use a torque wrench to tighten the bolts/nuts, but rather I snugged them and made sure the gasket was even all the way around (no awkward protrusions). Also, i had been running Castrol GTX syn blend 10w30 for years, and now that I changed my gasket I switched to Mobil 1 5w30.
Starting to get very frustrating and I would greatly appreciate any help. Is my problem simply using a full synthetic rather than a synthetic blend?
i used the felpro one from napa, both times. its the blue one. i used this same gasket on a 99 civic months ago and it sits in my drive way with no leaks...
Snug doesn't usually cut it, I had to go around that sucker multiple times.
just out of desperation, and because im dreading doing the thing for the 3rd time in as many weeks .... do you suppose I can re tighten the bolts/nuts or would you consider it a 1 time use deal?
Get the ultra grey RTV drop the pan. clean all of it with brake cleaner then skim coat both sides and be done with it. UNLESS your pan is severely warped. Even then a lil bit of neatly applied grey RTV and even torque will hook you up
Get the ultra grey RTV drop the pan. clean all of it with brake cleaner then skim coat both sides and be done with it. UNLESS your pan is severely warped. Even then a lil bit of neatly applied grey RTV and even torque will hook you up
hell yeah ill try that! i went with ultra black rtv just cuz its what ive used in the past, but i only used it on the corners where the pan is round making way for the crank. my pan is in great shape so this is uplifting advice ...
That's so painfully stupid. Don't RTV the entire ******* gasket. Get an OEM gasket, follow the torque pattern, and torque them properly. There's a reason that this has a procedure involved in it. If you don't follow that procedure, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it doesn't work right.
If you used a cork gasket and tightened it to much it will crack and leak.
Also make sure that the oil pan is not dinged up around the seat the slightest dent will cause it to leak.
My favorite thing to do on stubborn oil pans is to go get a can of "the right stuff" best silicone you can buy in my opinion. But a bead on both the block and the oil pan. Let it dry 20-30 min and fill her up with oil. Try not to make that big of a bead a little goes a long way. Also get a factory gasket from Honda for $28
Notaracist i see you all over this forum down grading and calling names and trying to call people "stupid" or "dim" in my case. How bout you take your "collapsed" bearing knowledge and negative quips over to the hella flush stanced forum. This guy has a legitimate problem and dosnt need some BS DOWNGRADING REMARKS. to the OP give the RTV a shot, just be sure to make everything VERY clean
Get the ultra grey RTV drop the pan. clean all of it with brake cleaner then skim coat both sides and be done with it. UNLESS your pan is severely warped. Even then a lil bit of neatly applied grey RTV and even torque will hook you up
The engine design does not call for RTV as the replacement gasket. You either buy the oem rubber gasket or get whatever fits your budget from the parts store.
just out of desperation, and because im dreading doing the thing for the 3rd time in as many weeks .... do you suppose I can re tighten the bolts/nuts or would you consider it a 1 time use deal?
Ensure you clean off any oil on mating surfaces before applying the gasket. Clean off any left behind rtv's, hondabond, and proceed to apply the new gasket. if your oil pan is kinked up.
I didn't say "use RTV AS YOUR GASKET" you just can't read so I went ahead and copied a pic of the oil pan gasket procedure the RED CIRCLES indicate HONDA BOND or grey RTV
Notaracist i see you all over this forum down grading and calling names and trying to call people "stupid" or "dim" in my case. How bout you take your "collapsed" bearing knowledge and negative quips over to the hella flush stanced forum. This guy has a legitimate problem and dosnt need some BS DOWNGRADING REMARKS. to the OP give the RTV a shot, just be sure to make everything VERY clean
I'm here to call out dumb ***** with shitty tech advice. That's what I do. For example, slapping a bead of RTV around the entire gasket? ******* stupid. There's a proper procedure for installing an oil pan gasket, and "just slap RTV on there" sure as **** isn't it. Running an engine with the oil light on? ******* stupid. Do you need me to explain to you how oil, bearings, and crank journals work together, or what happens when there isn't oil between the crank and the journal?
If you don't like the degrading remarks, don't say dumb **** for me to call you out on. It's that simple.
From what I recall, there is a little "washer" that sits in the block that you need to take out before putting on the new gasket. If you don't, it may leak near the side of the engine next to the flywheel. That's what I have heard at least...
may be worth a check if you have the pan off again.
OP, I wasn't originally going to post in this thread, as you're getting good advice from tony and joey (and NARC with his usual damage control)...but I feel that my personal experience just might lend some insight, or at least be worth noting.
A few years back I went through the same thing, Felpro blue silicone oil pan gasket...I went through 2 of them trying to seal up my bottom end. I had done all the cleaning of both block and pan sealing surfaces, and used RTV grey in all the FSM stated places (not to mention i have done this to many cars, I'm no newb mechanic).
The first gasket seemed to seat up correctly, and indeed sat well right up until 7 lbs-ft of torque...at which point the gasket managed to bulge out a bit, not TOO much mind you, just enough to notice. Anyhow, the pan bolts now being torqued down to spec, and with things looking okay I added oil, filter etc...and took it for a drive....oil EVERYWHERE.
Got back home and drained, pan/gasket off, inspect. Found the gasket had torn in multiple places and was allowing oil to leak freely. Chocked it all up to my own unnoticed incompetence. Installed my extra gasket (always have an extra), also a felpro blue. Took EXTRA care this time around to line up all the dimples and holes, and installed it all again...torqued to spec, no bulge this time...great. Went for a drive, again, oil everywhere.
Home again, pull pan again. Gasket torn AGAIN. Well, FML. At this point I suspected either Felpro was total ****, even though thousands of these are installed regularly and DONT LEAK..or my oil pan had something terribly wrong with it.
Set to cleaning the ever living crap out of my pan inside/out. Put the pan up on the bench seal side down...and discovered two things. One, the raised bead around the bolt/stud holes were cupped, likely from a previous owner/shop not knowing their ****. And Two, the entire raised sealing bead, dimples included were nowhere near level/plane.
So now I got out my 1/4 round end flat faced punch, and set to releveling and de-cupping the entire sealing bead/bolt holes. 4 hours later that thing was more level than I bet it started as brand new, tested by placing a light inside the pan with the seal surface down on some 1/4 steel plate (clean, flat and polished) and looked for any light leaks from the bead areas...none.
Now having gotten tired of throwing money at Felpro, and Big Island Honda not having an OEM pan gasket (they never have anything you want when you want it here), I decided to visit Carquest (ugh *shiver*) and purchased the closest thing I could find to OEM...a Victor/Reinz Rubber Gasket. Got home, recleaned block, new rubber gasket, pan on, proper sequence and torque, oil, swearing, sweating and sighing....out for a drive. No bulging of gasket, no leaks whatsoever, AND the nice black gasket hiding well against the black oil pan (no blue ick).
From all that, I will only say that I will never waste money on a silicone gasket of any make, its OEM or V/R from now on. I do apologize for the wall of text.
P.S. check your pan sealing bead, it just might be as warped as a goat up a tree.
OP, I wasn't originally going to post in this thread, as you're getting good advice from tony and joey (and NARC with his usual damage control)...but I feel that my personal experience just might lend some insight, or at least be worth noting.
A few years back I went through the same thing, Felpro blue silicone oil pan gasket...I went through 2 of them trying to seal up my bottom end. I had done all the cleaning of both block and pan sealing surfaces, and used RTV grey in all the FSM stated places (not to mention i have done this to many cars, I'm no newb mechanic).
The first gasket seemed to seat up correctly, and indeed sat well right up until 7 lbs-ft of torque...at which point the gasket managed to bulge out a bit, not TOO much mind you, just enough to notice. Anyhow, the pan bolts now being torqued down to spec, and with things looking okay I added oil, filter etc...and took it for a drive....oil EVERYWHERE.
Got back home and drained, pan/gasket off, inspect. Found the gasket had torn in multiple places and was allowing oil to leak freely. Chocked it all up to my own unnoticed incompetence. Installed my extra gasket (always have an extra), also a felpro blue. Took EXTRA care this time around to line up all the dimples and holes, and installed it all again...torqued to spec, no bulge this time...great. Went for a drive, again, oil everywhere.
Home again, pull pan again. Gasket torn AGAIN. Well, FML. At this point I suspected either Felpro was total ****, even though thousands of these are installed regularly and DONT LEAK..or my oil pan had something terribly wrong with it.
Set to cleaning the ever living crap out of my pan inside/out. Put the pan up on the bench seal side down...and discovered two things. One, the raised bead around the bolt/stud holes were cupped, likely from a previous owner/shop not knowing their ****. And Two, the entire raised sealing bead, dimples included were nowhere near level/plane.
So now I got out my 1/4 round end flat faced punch, and set to releveling and de-cupping the entire sealing bead/bolt holes. 4 hours later that thing was more level than I bet it started as brand new, tested by placing a light inside the pan with the seal surface down on some 1/4 steel plate (clean, flat and polished) and looked for any light leaks from the bead areas...none.
Now having gotten tired of throwing money at Felpro, and Big Island Honda not having an OEM pan gasket (they never have anything you want when you want it here), I decided to visit Carquest (ugh *shiver*) and purchased the closest thing I could find to OEM...a Victor/Reinz Rubber Gasket. Got home, recleaned block, new rubber gasket, pan on, proper sequence and torque, oil, swearing, sweating and sighing....out for a drive. No bulging of gasket, no leaks whatsoever, AND the nice black gasket hiding well against the black oil pan (no blue ick).
From all that, I will only say that I will never waste money on a silicone gasket of any make, its OEM or V/R from now on. I do apologize for the wall of text.
P.S. check your pan sealing bead, it just might be as warped as a goat up a tree.
OP, I wasn't originally going to post in this thread, as you're getting good advice from tony and joey (and NARC with his usual damage control)...but I feel that my personal experience just might lend some insight, or at least be worth noting.
A few years back I went through the same thing, Felpro blue silicone oil pan gasket...I went through 2 of them trying to seal up my bottom end. I had done all the cleaning of both block and pan sealing surfaces, and used RTV grey in all the FSM stated places (not to mention i have done this to many cars, I'm no newb mechanic).
The first gasket seemed to seat up correctly, and indeed sat well right up until 7 lbs-ft of torque...at which point the gasket managed to bulge out a bit, not TOO much mind you, just enough to notice. Anyhow, the pan bolts now being torqued down to spec, and with things looking okay I added oil, filter etc...and took it for a drive....oil EVERYWHERE.
Got back home and drained, pan/gasket off, inspect. Found the gasket had torn in multiple places and was allowing oil to leak freely. Chocked it all up to my own unnoticed incompetence. Installed my extra gasket (always have an extra), also a felpro blue. Took EXTRA care this time around to line up all the dimples and holes, and installed it all again...torqued to spec, no bulge this time...great. Went for a drive, again, oil everywhere.
Home again, pull pan again. Gasket torn AGAIN. Well, FML. At this point I suspected either Felpro was total ****, even though thousands of these are installed regularly and DONT LEAK..or my oil pan had something terribly wrong with it.
Set to cleaning the ever living crap out of my pan inside/out. Put the pan up on the bench seal side down...and discovered two things. One, the raised bead around the bolt/stud holes were cupped, likely from a previous owner/shop not knowing their ****. And Two, the entire raised sealing bead, dimples included were nowhere near level/plane.
So now I got out my 1/4 round end flat faced punch, and set to releveling and de-cupping the entire sealing bead/bolt holes. 4 hours later that thing was more level than I bet it started as brand new, tested by placing a light inside the pan with the seal surface down on some 1/4 steel plate (clean, flat and polished) and looked for any light leaks from the bead areas...none.
Now having gotten tired of throwing money at Felpro, and Big Island Honda not having an OEM pan gasket (they never have anything you want when you want it here), I decided to visit Carquest (ugh *shiver*) and purchased the closest thing I could find to OEM...a Victor/Reinz Rubber Gasket. Got home, recleaned block, new rubber gasket, pan on, proper sequence and torque, oil, swearing, sweating and sighing....out for a drive. No bulging of gasket, no leaks whatsoever, AND the nice black gasket hiding well against the black oil pan (no blue ick).
From all that, I will only say that I will never waste money on a silicone gasket of any make, its OEM or V/R from now on. I do apologize for the wall of text.
P.S. check your pan sealing bead, it just might be as warped as a goat up a tree.
Yup. I've had the same problem, and had to use the same solution. got me laughing up a storm with the goat up a tree bit btw. lol
11-10-2015, 02:15 PM
Honda Civic oil pan gasket/oil leak
Re: Honda Civic oil pan gasket/oil leak
