Hey there guys! I'm planning to change my oil pan gasket on my 96 Honda Accord EX Coupe.

It's been dripping some oil and just decided to change it. 1 or 2 drops after each run. Anyways I know that the gasket has gone bad due to the header pipe running under it, heating up the pan and the gasket making the rubber brittle.

Is there something I can put in between to shield the pan from the pipe? I know that there's header wrap, but is there any other choice?

And also, I guess ill be removing the down pipe section from the header. Can I re-use the old gasket?

thank-you!!!

 

Well, when you have the pan off you can tack weld some 1/4x20 nuts to the oil pan and bolt a piece of sheet metal to it as a heat shield.
That would keep the radiant energy from the headers away, but if you don't allow enough space between the pan and your new shield, the pan will loose what cooling effect it has.

More than likely you will not be able to reuse the original gasket (unless the god's really, really like you)

P

 

Is there like a shielding blanket or something? I do not have the tools to weld a sheet onto the oil pan... How hard is it to wrap it in header wrap.

Can I drop the downpipe from the header section and leave the other end bolted to the car???

Thanks!

 

I would just wrap the header.

the header can be unbolted from the header section and left bolted to the rest, just remember to unbolt the bracket to the block and unhook a couple hangers to drop the exhaust low enough.

if you wanted though, you could try using the mounting studs for the oil pan to attach a heat shield to with nuts, there should be enough thread left. Not sure if that will work or not, but thats just something that came to mind.

 

If you use some sort of heat shield such as a sheet metal plate attached to the oil pan studs that you may need to upgrade to, then drill some holes in the very bottom to allow air flow or a chimney action to help circulate the air between the oil pan and the heat shield.