New Oilpan

[Sam-Son]

For the longest time I've had a very tiny hairline crack in my oilpan. as a result the car will leak oil acouple of drops every once in awhile. My question is how much is a new oilpan and where can I get one?
Thanks
-Mike

[winfred]

drain the oil and clean the pan to the point where you'd serve dinner on it, and seal it up with jb-weld, no fuss no muss fixed forever if cleaned/prepped properly

[Jon K]

Or have it welded for relatively cheap

[gale]

drain the oil and clean the pan to the point where you'd serve dinner on it, and seal it up with jb-weld, no fuss no muss fixed forever if cleaned/prepped properly

Ditto, JB Weld is great stuff. Use a stiff wire brush and acetone to clean it. You can remove the oil filler cap & duct tape a shop vac to the engine to keep the oil from seeping thru the crack while you're working on it. Don't seal the duct tape too tight, you don't need much vacuum at all. Use the regular JB Weld, the 4-minute JB Kwik isn't nearly as strong & is less heat resistant.

[Sam-Son]

drain the oil and clean the pan to the point where you'd serve dinner on it, and seal it up with jb-weld, no fuss no muss fixed forever if cleaned/prepped properly
How long does something like this usually take?

[winfred]

it's generally a good idea to let the epoxy cure overnight, draining the oil and cleaning maybe 15-30 minutes, couple minutes to mix and apply the jb and in the morning you could dump in your oil and drive to work, vs many hours to change the oil pan plus the cost of the pan, or the same many hours to pull the pan get it welded and reinstall

[Bin_jammin]

It's a crack. On something that holds all the oil in your engine. JB Weld may very well stop the leak, but it won't stop the crack from growing. Whatever caused it, heat causing expansion and contraction, vibration... all these things will make a crack walk open. JB Welding an oil pan is something to be done in case of emergency on the side of the road. Spend the time, drop the pan, have it welded or replaced.

[Sam-Son]

It's a crack. On something that holds all the oil in your engine. JB Weld may very well stop the leak, but it won't stop the crack from growing. Whatever caused it, heat causing expansion and contraction, vibration... all these things will make a crack walk open. JB Welding an oil pan is something to be done in case of emergency on the side of the road. Spend the time, drop the pan, have it welded or replaced.
I will probably have it replaced once I get some more money

[winfred]

the thing with cracks in oil pans is they are caused by a outside influence, impact damage, i've been jb-welding pans for about 8 years now and have been selling pans for longer then that, i have yet to see one spontaneously crack


It's a crack. On something that holds all the oil in your engine. JB Weld may very well stop the leak, but it won't stop the crack from growing. Whatever caused it, heat causing expansion and contraction, vibration... all these things will make a crack walk open. JB Welding an oil pan is something to be done in case of emergency on the side of the road. Spend the time, drop the pan, have it welded or replaced.

[Bin_jammin]

the thing with cracks in oil pans is they are caused by a outside influence, impact damage, i've been jb-welding pans for about 8 years now and have been selling pans for longer then that, i have yet to see one spontaneously crack

I've seen spontaneous cracks before, in the sense that you have no idea why the metals cracked... no evidence of any impact of excessive heat... sometimes you can get a bad casting, but either way, the metal needs to be drilled and welded, not JB Welded.

[winfred]

in a actually stressed part yes, in a flawed new oil pan perhaps, in a 15 year old oil pan.... so what if the jb fails (lasted 89k miles and two different engines on my car) your back to square one and it drips (usually due to shitty prep work, epoxy don't stick to oil), it's not like the pan is going to explode open and dump all of the oil under the tires sending the car into a bus full of nuns and children

[Sam-Son]

It seems like everyone of my threads turns into a pissing contest:p

[bsell]

a bus full of nuns and children

Nice mental picture!;)

[Jon K]

JB Welding a pan is fine - we're talking about a seepage not a 1 quart per second leak. I'd personally get it welded but that's because 'amma balllllllllllllllllllla'!

[Bin_jammin]

it's not like the pan is going to explode open and dump all of the oil under the tires sending the car into a bus full of nuns and children

Explode? No, sliding out of control? Probably not. I have seen cracks open suddenly, in parts that weren't stressed members. Causes? Who the hell knows? It's a crack, it will do what it wants. Would I even remotely take the chance on JB Weld on either my car or a customer's car?

Absolutely no chance in hell whatsoever.

[Jon K]

FWIW it's common practice to JB weld fuel tanks and oil pans, its really not a bad practice. It's just too ugly for my styulz

[Ross]

I've seen spontaneous cracks before, in the sense that you have no idea why the metals cracked... no evidence of any impact of excessive heat... sometimes you can get a bad casting, but either way, the metal needs to be drilled and welded, not JB Welded.
I've successfully used JB weld on lots of stuff including tranny cases, these absorb a moderate amount of torque.
Drilling is to stop the crack from running further Sam. I don't think yours is progressing is it? Likely what ever caused this (dollar to a donut it was a jack)is in the past.
The only thing I would add to winfred's post is to scuff up the repair area with grinder to give the JBW something to grab on to.

[Bin_jammin]

I've successfully used JB weld on lots of stuff including tranny cases, these absorb a moderate amount of torque.
Drilling is to stop the crack from running further Sam. I don't think yours is progressing is it? Likely what ever caused this (dollar to a donut it was a jack)is in the past.
The only thing I would add to winfred's post is to scuff up the repair area with grinder to give the JBW something to grab on to.

Actually, drilling is for welding. When you're welding you're adding new metal that's hot, and it transfers the heat into whatever you're welding. This can force the crack to walk further, which means you'll keep chasing it with the welder. Drilling at the end of the crack will give the crack a place to expand at without widening further.

[Ross]

Actually, drilling is for welding. When you're welding you're adding new metal that's hot, and it transfers the heat into whatever you're welding. This can force the crack to walk further, which means you'll keep chasing it with the welder. Drilling at the end of the crack will give the crack a place to expand at without widening further.

Isn't that what I said?

[Dave M]

Isn't that what I said?

Agree.

Drilling isn't exclusively useful for welding. Drilling will prevent many materials from continuing to split, shear etc. Its commonly used on small aircraft to stop small fuselage / window tears from going along their merry way.

[leicesterboy15]

How expensive are they? Surely not that much?

[winfred]

$405 list my cost on a new one is $305 used are getting hard to come by due to guys using them to put a m50 in a e30, when i have them i sell them for around $175