Oil Pan Job... How bad?

[j_cd]

Yeah that oil pan looks mighty clean. Did you put it in a blasting cabinet and hit it with glass bead?

[demian5]

It is gravy. You don't even need to lift the engine even on an AWD. I'll do it for you for $400. ONLY issue was the pan at the front of the engine (at the balancer). It was tricky to get in there, however I applied the sealant to both the block and the pan. Not one leak and the engine never had a flickering oil pressure light again.

[FlyingVolvo]

Yay, another encouraging post! Thanks demian, that info will help a lot. If I had a bit more money I might be tempted to let you at it, but I'd like to do and know this repair too. Only way for me to learn this sort of thing is by doing it, even by trial and error!

I'll probably tackle this on Sunday or Monday!

[FlyingVolvo]

Alright, well I've decided to jump right into this!

1st stage is complete....

-Drained oil + filter
-Removed dipstick tube
-Removed the power steering line retainers
-Zip-tied the PS line away from the pan
-Unbolted oil cooler and zip-tied it to the rear

Observations so far:

1) With all that done, the pan appears pretty much able to just drop straight down. The only exception being on the oil filter side of the pan, there is a metal tab coming out of the sub-frame. It is useless i.e not doing anything... so if necessary I think I can bend it out of the way.

2) Also, could someone explain to me the oil cooler, despite its simple name? I was under the impression oil was being pumped to the radiator to be cooled, but when I started to undo the actual hoses, coolant came out! So is the coolant just pumped in there to cool the oil as the name implies?

[EstVolvo]

To : j_cd
I just took it to a local car repair place and asked them to clean it. Probably they have oil cleaner circulating in their parts washer.
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When I had the oil pan removed I couldn't see anything wrong with the engine except one of the two gaskets between the oil pan and the engine was crushed ( wasn't round) since day one when the engine was assembled ... but it was still doing what it was supposed to do.

I was also surprised and disappointed about the oil cooler - maybe something like that would make difference on a motorcycle ... but on a car? I just left coolant lines attached ... after getting a shower and breaking a hose clamp.

This metal tab coming out of the sub-frame can be bend down and later on up.

[j_cd]

I picked up a blast cabinet at harbor freight on sale for $90, and I needed a compressor anyway. Already got a shop vac to hook it up to, just need the fine grain glass bead now. This is to clean my turbocharger, but I think it's large enough to fit the intake manifold too.

[FlyingVolvo]

Update!

Got all the bolts off (I think?) and the pan just feels ready to slide out super easy.... but no..... there is something holding it back on the passenger's side of the pan. I can't figure it out. I doubt that I missed a bolt, plus the pan is so loose I would think even one bolt still on would prevent that.

I took off the transmission mount since that makes the driver's side of the pan super easy to come out with the PS lines zip-tied away.

But I just can't figure out why the other side doesn't want to drop, or even slide much to the left.

[FlyingVolvo]

^^^

I think it might be the pickup tube itself causing the problem? I'm not sure. There is one more bolt that I found, but it's only on the pan itself, not attached to the block. It looks like an Allen wrench socket and I think it's a support for the pickup tube? Should I take this off? Or will I never get it back on if I do so?

Halp.

[JDS60R]

If you can drop the pan down one inch then it shoudl be loose.

Take out the bolt that holds up the oil pickup. Us a piece of plastic or wood to prtect the gasket surface and pry down the oil pickup. This should help you

[FlyingVolvo]

Are you talking about a bolt inside the oil pan area? I don't want to break anything!

Thanks!