Thread: Oil Pan/Tranny Pan Swap?

So I took my 03 in the other day for tires, and they went ahead and changed the oil. They reported to me that the pan had a major dent in it, which I assume must have been from road debris. Since I've owned it I don't remember snagging anything, so it had to have been there for a few years. Anyways, the gasket is leaking slightly anyways, so I'm going to need to pull the pan at some point.

I guess I'm wondering if I need to lift the motor at all to swap out the oil pan. If so, is there a way I can unbolt the pan and sneak a new gasket in between it and the oil pump?

They also told me there's a smaller dent in the tranny pan. Anything special to know there? I've never been under my 03, so I wanted to get informed before I do. I'm a little leery about changing the tranny pan. I always hear stories about cars with high mileage that do much worse with all new fluid.

What about doing the pan gasket? Can I unbolt the pan and sneak the gasket between it and the pump? I'm not sure I have the skills to take apart the subframe.

To change the gasket you are going to need to get a bullet first and just bite it!

You will have to get the dog bone (motor mount) out of the way in order to even remove the oil pan. You will also need to raise the engine as high as you can go so you can sneak the pan off the engine.

I had to do this once in a 99 Regal. I started out thinking I didn't need to raise the motor but as I went along I had no choice. Taking the subframe out with the motor will be a lot of work, but the best way I did this was to put the car on jack stands, disconnect the mount, remove the pan, and reassembled using a new motor mount. Just grin and bear it.

I apologize for digging my old thread back up, but I'm looking to either get this done or to do it myself soon. Let me see if I have the overall process correct:

*Put car on jack stands
*Empty oil pan
*Hook the engine to a hoist, taking up any slack
*Remove both dog bones
*Raise the motor (how much is required?)
*Unbolt pan, clean gasket surface of motor
*Bolt new pan and gasket up to motor (torque specs?)
*Lower motor
*Rebolt dog bones (torque specs?)
*Detach hoist and lower car
*Fill with oil, let it drain to the bottom, check level again
*Start motor for 10-15 seconds, shut off, check oil level/fill if necessary

So other than the questions I posted in there, I have a couple'a others:

*I might as well change the oil pump if I do it myself (171k miles). Is that hard to do/is there more than unbolting/bolting?
*What might a shop charge me to do this? It might be worth spending the money to have my weekends free, as I get very little free time.
*How long of a job is this, and do I need any special tools besides renting a hoist (I have a torque wrench and plenty of sockets).

Oil pump is in the front cover.

Kinda a different game.

The lower engine mount will need to be unbolted if you want to raise the engine.

You will also need to lower the subframe at least the two rear bolts.

Wow, sounds like a major headache. Maybe I should get estimates on a shop doing this, skipping the oil pump since it's not actually in the pan.

I know I'm beating this to death, but I'm still torn between dropping major cash or losing my whole Saturday. I might as well do both the engine and tranny pans since both are dented. So if anyone can answer a few specifics, that'll help me.

• Is there just the one lower dogbone, and is that all I have to take off (IE not the front upper)
• Is there anywhere I can find a general list of torque specs? (for both the engine and tranny pans and the lower dogbone)
• How high is too high to lift the motor? I don't want to have to reattach the halfshafts and lots of wiring
• Do I need to unbolt the exhaust
• Do I have to drop the subframe? (I don't have air tools)
• Is there any special method to priming the engine or tranny with all new fluid after pulling the pans?
• Will the job take more than ~10 hours?

I'm definitely not a stranger to working on my own car, but the biggest job I've ever done is the LIM gasket, and I found a video tutorial on that through here.

The dent isn't so much what's bothering me. It's the leaking from the gaskets. I just figured I'd replace the pans too since I'm under there. Then again, maybe it's not necessary. The last time I had a pan off was on your old school motors that had the oil pump down there. But if it's just leaking and it's not messing with oil pressure maybe I'll just do the gaskets.

Works for me, still stuck on a lot of the questions I have above though. I don't want to wait too much longer on this leak.

Thanks for the quick answers. Guess now I just need to look into freeing up a Saturday and renting an engine hoist. I wonder if I can get away with keeping the hood bolted. Probably so I'd assume.

Thanks again. I'll try to remember to report back, hopefully with pictures.

Just to be clear, when you're talking lowering the subframe you're talking backing out the bolts a ways, but not totally pulling it, correct?