LITLRED

A good friend at work was quoted $400 by his mechanic to fix an oil leak he says is coming from his oil pan. So I'm thinking maybe a 2 hour job but I've never worked on that motor before. Before I commit, is there any good reason the price is so high? Its a 1993 access cab 2wd pick-up.

abecedarian

drop the pan, clean things up, hylomar it, install it and call it done. well in a perfect world that would take about an hour. maybe 2. I'm not a big fan of the toyota FIPG sealant but that should work too, in place of hylomar.

Jeenyus04

I would assume access is gonna be roughly none and clearance should be about the same. hang your head under there and check it out.

LITLRED

I wanted to take a peek after work but didn't have a flashlight. So you seal it up with FIPG or hylomar instead of a gasket? Sounds simple enough. My buddy wanted to pay me but we settled on dinner at TODAI.

kiyobrown

I am pretty sure I stopped my leak by listening to a little advice on here that said get under there and tighten up the oil pan bolts a little to see if you can tighten up on an old gasket. Bout 1000 miles later, the steering stabilizer that was once covered in oil is still white. Now on to find that tranny leak........

LITLRED

Okay I need some help. Got all of the pan bolts out. Not so easy. Had to remove the truss that goes across and one of the engine/tranny stiffener mounts and loosen the other one to get the tranny cover plate off so I could reach the bolts and nuts in the back.
It looks like there's no way the pan will drop out unless I remove the steering linkage. The FSM shows about 4 different pullers for that job. Is there an easier way?

LITLRED

I got a little sleep andtackled it again in the morning. Borrowed a steering puller set from the auto parts store and only had to remove one side of the steering linkage, the tie rod and pitman arm on the LH side and it swung down enough to drop the pan.


What a mess! This is supposedly a recently(less than 1 year) rebuilt 3vze. There were 2 cork gaskets sandwiched between the baffle, pan and bloc. And gray sealant smeared all over, including all bolt holes. One bolt was missing...turned out its busted off. How do you snap a bolt that torks to 5 ft-lbs?
Now its bolt extraction, clean, fipage (what the dealer called it), and reassemble.

abecedarian

sorry for the circumstance you find yourself in.

Stock is no gasket but with "Fipage". Since you have cork in there, and what appears to be FIPG sealant, no wonder it's leaking... not that a cork gasket is particularly bad but two of them and sealant and broken bolt adds up to something that will leak. I'm guessing the cork went in after the bolt broke with some hope that the bolts on either side of the broken one combined with the compressibility of the cork and FIPG would conceal a leak for a long time.

"Fipage" is the slang for the form-in-place-gasket sealant. Not a bad thing at all. My personal peave with it is that it gets hard ( umm... nevermind) but Hylomar generally remains pliable. It's more expensive so don't fret over not using it and I won't harp on you for that either.

You're well on your way to fixing it so do what you have to.

LITLRED

Its all good. Hylomar does appear to be the gold standard for sealants. Does anyone (Abe) have a good domestic source? I hate leakes.

abecedarian

The (rather large) tube of Hylomar I have has been in my bag o'tools since 1990. I bought it at a speed-shop in Riverside, California which has since gone away. I've used it (the same tube) on a couple of VW's I've owned, the Firebird I currently own and both of my Toyota's.

Where to buy it now? You're gonna have to Google.

LITLRED

I found this at the bottom of the pan in the sludge.



I was having a good night. I was all ready to easy out the broken bolt but when I took off the baffle plate the bolt was protruding about 2 mm so I got it out with vise grips. I tapped all the holes. cleaned and honed the block surface, filed and cleaned the baffle plate then this. What do you guy's think? The Truck was running great other than a bit of a rough idle.

turborich

check it out, Harbor freight tools sells Hylomar.

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpis...lue+&Submit=Go

Stuwy123

iTrader: (1)

Check your oil pump intake.
The V6 doesnt have the same problems as the 22re (plastic guides and what not) but it doesn't hurt to check for anything stuck in/on the oil intake.

LITLRED

Epilogue
Got the job done and told my friend that IMO he should sell the truck but get a second opinion, but not from your usual mechanic. So He took it to the dealer who diagnosed a blown HG, water pump leak and rear main seal leak and an estimate of $2,600. So he took the truck back to his mechanic and showed him the letter I wrote to the dealer and the dealers diagnosis (but not the cost). His mechanic showed sincere remorse and promised to make it right for little or no cost. I suggested he still sell the truck.