j894

'99 Accord Lx
2.3L - F23a1
5speed Manual
219k miles

The factory silicone on my oil pan is leaking pretty good at the flywheel end and causing a lot of oil loss on the highway. I put on about 500 miles a week and loose 3/4 to 1 quart in that time. Constantly checking and refilling my oil is getting old and annoying..

Anyway, I'm looking to swap the silicone out for Fel Pro's oil pan gasket. I've actually done this before on my 2000 accord 2.3, but that was when my tranny was already out and I had more time to deal with the exhaust.

This time I'd like do it without messing with the exhaust flange near the Cat converter, as dealing with the rusted bolts took up almost the entire day last time, along with many busted knuckles, drill bits, and creative swearing (In the northeast the bolts don't come out, they have to be cut/drilled out).

So my question is, has anyone successfully changed the oil pan gasket by only unbolting the down-pipe from the exhaust and letting the rest hang? Is there enough room to remove the pan? My head was rebuilt recently, so I know the down-pipe flange bolts will come apart fairly easy, the other parts of the exhaust I'm no so sure.

The car has a lot of mileage and the bolts near the cat converter flange surely won't come off without incident. I'm sure trying to get them a part will be a basket case.

If anyone has tried this or has any advice, please let me know.

Thanks!

lazlong

If it's all factory exhaust, once you unbolt the downpipe it should only be held up with exhaust hangers. Which are rubber and easy to disconnect. You should be able to make all the room you need.

*Make sure to seat the exhaust gasket properly when re-installing the downpipe. You'll definitely hear it if you didn't seat it properly.

j894

Will do. I never had to remove the down pipe last time the whole manifold was taken off.

Is there enough room to pull the downpipe down outside the subframe while the rest of the pipe is still connected?

lazlong

Hmmm... don't know. You could always disconnect it from the hangers and shove it to the opposite side of the car.

holmesnmanny

I can't say for sure with the f23a1 but I had no issues doing that with a 4th and 5th gen. Since it has the factory hondabond you will need to make sure to use a razor and scrape of ALL old hondabond from both the block and the pan. This is important to ensure it doesn't leak.

Yes, you should be able to just unbolt the downpipe from the exhaust manifold and it could give room to allow the oil pan to come off but I'm not certain. Don't forget the oxygen sensor may be in there and may need to be disconnected before you remove the downpipe so the oxygen sensor wire doesn't get ripped. I haven't looked, I'm assuming it's in the downpipe and not in the exhaust manifold. Also, you have to buy a new crush washer for the downpipe/exhaust manifold as they are only designed to work once.

You will want to make sure to torque those bolts in a crisscross fashion and evenly bit by bit until it's torqued down properly so it doesn't leak. If you do too much in one bolt it could spring an exhaust leak.

j894

Thanks for the tips.

Already got the crush gasket for the down pipe so I'm good to go. I'm going to be tackling it tonight or this weekend so I'll let everyone know how it goes.

FYI for anyone looking, from what I found the torque specs for the manifold to down pipe are 40 ft/lbs. .. And the oil pan to block is 10 ft/lbs in 2 stages.

Also, autozone repair guide says to "Apply liquid gasket to the corners of the curved section of the gasket."

Here is the tightening sequence for the oil pan bolts:
http://repairguide.autozone.com/znet...528003a08e.gif

wish me luck