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Oil Pan

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John Moore

John Moore

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I want to remove my oil pan while the engine is in the car, so that I can inspect the rod bearings. I have chatter on start up. The front two bolts seem to be hard to get to due to the front crossmember. Any suggestions or special tricks? I have heard I may need to undo the engine mounts and jack the engine up.
 
thin wrench & patience...Tom Bedenbaugh may have a trick but I've just laid down comfortably & slowly losened them...oil pan will come off easily afterwards.
 
I thought somebody would answer on the MGB Experience board so I never bothered!! SORRY!!! All I did is take a 7/16 box end and bend it kind of funky!! I have only checked mine for tight, but if you can tighten, you can loosen, right????
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John, if you have to get into loosening off the motor mounts and all that crap, just pull it!! 2 hrs and it will be on the bench!! 4 hrs and it will be in and running!! Now, just don't ask me how I know!!!
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I have been reading the manual about pulling the engine. I don't have a hoist, and I guess I would like to know if the bearings are the problem before I pull the thing. It's just too bad, I finally got it back on the road a few weeks ago before this problem showed up. But on the other hand, the last think I want to do is seriously damage the engine.
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The first time I pulled mine, I never used a hoist!! Anyway, you buy them for a couple of hundred and you rent them for $15.00 a day!! GOOD LUCK MAN!!!!!! The problem with the pan is that you have to try and get it back together with no leaks!! BELIEVE ME!!! easier said than done!!
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Go to Sears and get a 7/16" 1/4" drive wooble socket, and a 6" extention. You can work it up to the front bolt to remove them. If you need to a board on the oil pan and a bottel jack may raise the engine a little without taken the bolts out of the motor mounts. You shouldn't need to unless you motor mounts are shot.
 
I tried it like that and my motor mounts were brand new!! It was tufff!! I just took a cheap wrench and bent it!! Worked great!! I have no idea why Tom would find it easy and I found it real ugly!! Tom is always right, so..... you just know I did something wrong!!
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Thanks Tom, I'll give it a go. If it is the bearings, how can I tell what size bearing to buy? I have know idea if the shaft has been ground. I see in the catalog, they come in .010" incremental sizes.
 
It will say on the back of the bearings!! Have at her, and good luck!!!! I sure wouldn't!! e-mail me when you are done John!!
 
Come on Gary, It's just a little drive across the continent to help a brother out! No oceans or anything! I heard replacing bearings while the engine is in the car is JUST A LITTLE messy! We have good beer here in upstate NY!
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It wasn't easy for mr the first time either,Gary. How ever several dozen oil pans later and a 1/4" drive air ratchet it's a piece of cake. Another trick, sometimes the oil pan seems to be welded on. Use a dead blow hammer or rubber mallet and give it a sharp tap on the drain plug. That will snap it loose. Then once you get it off set it under the engine and let her drip a while. I take a shop rag and rubber band and cover the oil pump screen too. You will need to pull the oil pump.
 
Tom...are you gonna explain to him which bearings he can get to with the engine in the car & which ones he'll have to leave as is? I've never been able to get both end mains off in the car (maybe its just me) - wonder how that affects engine performance?
 
Tony here's the symptom. A few days ago a noticed a "chatter" when I first start my car. It is a mid to high metallic sound that will last for a few seconds then go away when the oil pressure goes up to normal (55-60# at idle). I thought it was the valves or tappets. And due to low oil and they were just being loud until the pressure went up and they got an oil bath. I lost about a qt and 1/2 after driving my first 500 miles. I just got the car back on the road after sitting several years, but no obvious leaks. I have since replaced the oil with Castrol GTX high milage 20w50 and added Extend to the oil. Yesterday, it chattered at start up and not at any other time during the day. Tom thinks one of the rod bearings is about to go and has told me to not drive the car until I make sure it's not a bearing or I could spin a bearing or seriously damage the engine. What do you think?

I just in addition to the rod bearings, I could replace some of the mains, but since I don't have a hoist, I was planning to do this motor in situ. I have read you can replace all but those on the ends. Either way a messy job.
 
John...smart thing you're doing - listening to Tom! He knows better than all of us what can be done & the tricks to do it...I'm gonna go buy the 'wobble thingey' he talked about & stop using wrench! If Tom says check bearings, I'd check bearings...&, he's probably thinking same as rest of us: rod bearings as they usually go quicker than mains (&, factory manual says change them every 50,000 miles)
 
John, Don't know what kinda shape the rest of the engine is in but after considering pulling the bottom off to see what was there I decided to just pull the engine. As noted above It doesn't take much longer and you can do several other things at the same time...Oil relief valve...side cover gaskets.... clutch....
Besides it get's tough working cramped, with poor lighting, oily and on your back with arms raised for extended periods of time.
 
Point well made Gene, but I don't have a hoist and right now funds are tight. (Boys going back to school, etc.) So checking and replacing the bearings is somewhat of a patch. In a perfect world I would pull the engine for a complete rebuild. Maybe I will do that over the winter, after I save up some $$$. But other than the chatter I decribed above it is running great.
 
Agreed! Always use plastiguage - never, ever put an engine back together without checking it with Plastiguage!
 
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