Sump Seal replacement

[Gubernaculum]

Lessons learned from my oil pan job, recorded here for posterity:
I had intermittent low oil pressure warning light, especially at idle.
2000 s70 glt low pressure turbo.
The write-ups here helped a lot but weren't sufficient for me - it took 2 experienced car guys 6 hours to do this job in the driveway. It was a pain in the arse. Main problem was getting the pan down. It hung up on the passenger side very badly and wouldn't drop down. The pan can't drop straight down bc it hits the subframe, and it can't slide to the left due to the oil pickup hanging down right at the right rear corner of the block. There's very little room to maneuver the pan on that corner. The oil pickup also hit the pan's internal baffles while trying to remove it. We bent the subframe tab way down (that's no problem), got the PS lines out of the way (no problem), and also removed the tranny torque mount (also easy, worth doing). Oil cooler was easily removed with 4 torx bolts (t40 I think?). I also used a T20 and T25 for other stuff.

I think our problem was that the 2000 s70 has a hose (fuel return? I dunno, never traced it to its origin or insertion) that runs in the tiny area on the right side of the pan where you need to drop and rotate the oil pan. It couldn't be removed or moved due to the way it's routed. Not sure if the other vehicles here had it - you'd remember it as the line that has a bracket that attaches to the oil pan in the back right corner using the same type of short bolt used on the front+back of the pan - except the bolt is threaded into the pan facing forward instead of facing up like the pan bolts. The car in the post above (the pic of the one hard-to-access bolt) definitely does NOT have the line I'm talking about. We ended up using a jack and block of wood to raise the right side of the engine a bit (pushing on one of the accessories) without loosening any engine mounts, and my buddy fiddled with the line from the wheel well side while I pulled the pan. It is easier written than done.

Once the pan was down we saw tons of crap blocking the oil pickup screen. It was bits of dried "volvo anaerobic liquid gasket" that had squished out when the pan was first installed, dried, fallen, and gotten sucked up into the tube. We also saw that the two o-rings were improperly seated from the factory! Two terrible design flaws from the factory.
In reinstalling the pan I used a foam paint brush to "dab on" a very light coat of IPD's bright pink generic liquid gasket. I'm not sure if I used enough, but it hasn't leaked so far (only driven one mile). I wanted to avoid the same failure in the future so I went light. No pink goop squished out to the outside when I tightened the pan down so it may have been too light.

Also, be very careful when installing the 4 long bolts along the left side of the pan. I actually "missed the far hole" with one and luckily caught my mistake before starting the car.

I would rate this job even crappier than changing a starter on a BMW e30, with plenty of chances to majorly screw up. It was a tense hour or two with the pan half off since at that point we couldn't get the pan off, and we couldn't abort everything and put it back on either.

[precopster]

On the '99+ cars that fuel line that is attached to the sump sets apart these motors from previous ones and is the fuel line that routes around the front engine mount, under the crank pulley, through the accessory bracket where it's held on the block by a small torx and finally b/w inlet port 1 & 2 to join the fuel rail.

There is a quick release clamp just before the sump. Just pull it back and it will release. Don't know if you found that or if it helped. I think it's absurd to route that fuel line in that way; the earlier design was so much easier.

Good that you posted that anyone contemplating this should allow more time.

[ironbrick]

Long time reader, first time poster

Came from a '99 S70 GLT which, at 168k, had just started to make some valve noise on startup that would go away pretty quickly. Meticulous care by moi, ran synthetic it's whole life, etc...

Now on a used 2007 XC70 with 125k, I'm finding it a bit noisier that the '99 and the noise doesn't completely go away when at operating temp.

Currently, I'm sporting a broken PCV hose (top one, typical) that's getting fixed tomorrow at the dealer since I'm really hesitant to take on what I hear is an all day job in middle of winter.

Is it possible I'm hearing more noise due to the broken hose, or is it possible I'm starting to experience this seal issue on this 2007 that has much less miles than my '99 did (probably not as good care, but was dealer serviced it's whole life)? Just trying to get a feel on the commonality by mileage and/or years to determine whether or not to do this repair preventatively (or curatively if it's a current issue) while it's at the dealer tomorrow anyway. They might find it easier to clean all the crap out of the PCV ports, etc. if they have the pan off anyway, just a thought.

What Would You Do?

[loveMy850]

Nicely done!

oh my God, well I was going to take this on but not now, bravo to you, but where are you? I have $400 for whoever to do this.Out west it's most likely$1,000 good grief! Mine needs done. I'm serious where are you? ( ;

[abscate]

The evap line and fuel line are routed on the right side in the 1999-2000 models

Alldata reports 3.5 hours of pan removal, mine took about 2.5. I didn’t experience clearance problems but I removed the lower torque rod and used a pry bar to move motor over a bit. That’s standard work at this level.

You want a thin tacky spread on the gasket sealer. You can still see the sheen of the metal through the sealer when it is right

More is not good here.

[loveMy850]

Wow that's one He-W-L of a job,