Not that long ago I replaced my old oil pan gasket with a new my honda habit oil pan gasket since my old one was leaking pretty bad. I've always noticed a burning oil type smell though since I've done it and I've tried to wipe down all the old burnt oil that was sitting around and today I looked under my car and notice the gasket is still leaking but it seems to be leaking from the oil pan bolts right near the flywheel cover. Now when I replaced the gasket I used liquid gasket only in the areas specified by the instructions and I had to literally scrape off the old gasket because it was like glued to the oil pan and it would just crack and break offevery 2 inches or so when I pulled on it. The oil pan hardware was also tightened in a 2 step sequence. Does anyone know what could be causing this leak? Is my oil pan junk or something and just not siting flush how it should be with the gasket?

 

can you take a pic ? how "bad" is it puddle underneath the car or just sliming the engine/oil pan. i'd say put some rtv on if it's not to bad new pan maybe

 

It just covers the pan and the transmission. No puddles.

 

You can also see the oil drops on the heads of like 6 nuts/bolts.

 

sounds like your rear main seal might be leaking

 

i'd say take some de-greaser to it let it sit/drive it around unless you've already cleaned it could could be leaking from somewhere else also.

 

Yea I've already cleaned the whole area and it still leaks.

 

remove the flywheel cover and see if the leak is coming from further up.

 

Is the oil pan tweaked from the bolts being overtightened?

 

X2 rear main. Always assume a leak is coming from above where it is visible. Gravity's a biiaattcchh.

 

the old gasket split and hardened and it was that new? that sounds like the gasket, why are you using an aftermarket gasket? get a factory one

 

The oil pan seems fine other than good sized dent on the bottom but I bought the car that way.

 

The old gasket I replaced was hardened and it kept splitting. The my honda habit oil pan gasket is much better than oem.

 

Where would I see the oil trail if it was the rear main seal? I'll take the flywheel cover off tomorrow and take a look. It doesn't leak much but whenever I come to a stop or I have he heat/ac on and come to a stop I can smell burning oil.

 

How tight did you tighten the bolts? They're only supposed to be torqued to 7lbft

And if you knew just how little that was, you'd probably be in shock. It's hardly anything at all. The cam caps are torqued just as much, and you can break them all loose with hardly a finger on a 1/2in driver.

 

They're torqued down more than that but would they leak oil from the bolt heads if they're too tight?

 

if you overtorqued the gasket you basically squashed it and ruined it,

 

The my honda habit oil pan gasket isn't rubber so I know it's not crushed. I'll take a look at it eventually.

 

why would you replace it with a gasket thats not rubber like original?

 

I just read up on their site, too much over engineering for a simple gasket, if the pcv valve is working right, and a bunch of blowby pressure isnt building up in the pan, there is no "pressure" to blow out the gasket

 

Because its much better than the oem rubber gasket.

 

http://myhondahabit.com/index.php/my...an-gasket.html

 

if you install the OEM gasket right, they work just fine, thats just a way to get a crazy price for an over engineered over priced gasket, and so far it's not better because it's leaking oil everywhere. I've installed more factory gaskets then I can count, and they work just fine if it's done right

 

Agreed. My engine I'm rebuilding had a felpro blue oilpan gasket. I honestly didn't know the damn thing even had oil in it till I was half way through pulling the head and was thinking "Hmm there's a bit more oil on this head than there should be" Pulled the drain and out comes 4 quarts or so of oil. There wasn't a drip anywhere else and the damn engine has been sitting in my car (yes in, as in, took out a seat, dropped an engine in it) for over a week.

Even if your gasket is some super composite whatchamacallit material, it's still bad to overtorque the oil pan bolts.

btw, that oil pan gasket costs as much as a felpro MLS headgasket...that's just WAY too much for something like that.

 

The gasket isn't torqued down a crazy amount. I'll take a look around to see what's possibly leaking and if anything I'll replace the oil pan gasket with an oem one or similar.