Post 49 shows the sub oil pan removed from the main oil pan (there are two).
This is good practice, one day he may need to reseal an oil pan for pay.
1 Like
Yup. Learn from your mistakes, or don’t learn at all.
If Yoshi does go into the vehicle repairline of work I want to know where so I can go somewhere else.
6 likes and who knows how many Flags 
And one of the likes was by Yoshi .
7 Likes
I have a friend born and raised in Egypt by a prominent family. They had servants to take care of everything. Consequently when he came to the US he had no practical experience with anything mechanical. I’ve always been happy to help and he has been learning over the past 20 years but still it is a challenge without basic electrical, mechanical, house and yard maintenance experience. And a double PhD so no dummy but a lot of us have had this background since being little kids. Just sayin’ is all. Part of our lower or middle class privilege has been knowing how to service a lawn mower, paint a house, and change oil.
1 Like
Good point. I recently had to clean the gasket off of my Corolla’s water pump, and had to be very careful not to scratch the seating surface. I used an old credit card (plastic) for most of it, but found the credit card wasn’t 100% up to the job for part of the stuck gasket material. For that I used some sheet copper I salvaged from a copper pipe I found laying, squished, in the street. I sharpened the edge with a file, worked pretty good, and no scratches or gouges. Still, even using copper, I was especially careful not to scrape in the direction that an oil leak would develop if it scratched. I’m not sure if the water pump casing is made of aluminum or steel, but it looked more like aluminum.
Besides the post in 31, here are some more better pictures. So I wiped down the oil leaks to see if they come back and aid in finding where it is coming from. I supposed I could get one of the oil dye leak kit tests to help. But I figured I would get some better pictures on here to see if anyone can detect it easier. I already got the stuff to replace the oil pan, and I have done it before on a different engine, so I might as well. Some of these pictures, the oil looks fresh and wet.
History of the car:
- I replaced the valve cover gasket at one point. So it’s possible that some of the oil stains are old from when it was leaking.
- I had a power steering leak at one point. Oil was coming out of the reservoir, where oil was coming out where the tubes join with the reservoir. The clamps weren’t holding them down properly. It appears to no longer be leaking, fluid is no longer going down.
- I had the water pump for the coolant brake twice. I replaced them. Coolant leaked both times. I replaced them with new ones and appear to no longer be leaking.
Things I noticed:
- There is oil right above the filter. I don’t think this is from me changing the oil but it might be.
- There’s oil on the opposite side of the oil pan from the oil filter. Seems to be coming from either the oil pan area or leaking from something above.
I would use “Engine Degreaser” type of product… liberally… to clean all the old mess.
Then I would drive for 20-50 miles and re-checked.
Also, I noticed your nice&shiny Amsoil filter… which makes me question what type of oil are you using?
Myself, at some point I bought into Amsoil hype and ran it in my 2 old cars, where both started leaking where I used to have only a minor seepage before…
I used Mobile 1 semi-synthetic before that, and somehow things were holding up just fine, but not so with Amsoil.
I switched out from Amsoil to “high mileage” Valvoline, semi-synthtic in my recollections, and leeks got back to seepage in a couple of months, so I was able to do precious nothing and keep driving old clunkers I had at the time.
I do not want to tell Amsoil is evil, but I had such story myself and your picture made me think of oil brand as one of possible leakage culprits.
I’m using Amsoil Signature Series. Yea It’s overpriced, and paying for little to nothing (probably closer to nothing) of difference over just just using regular oil. I believe that if you change oil regularly it doesn’t really matter what you use.
Thanks for that suggestion. I’ll try using engine degreaser and see if it comes back.
I noticed here
that the splash pattern looks like the power steering rack might be leaking from the boot. I had a dealer tell me once that my power steering rack was leaking here and that quoted me $2000+ for a new one. I was leaking at one point and had to add in oil every so often. But I tracked down the leak to be from the reservoir. No longer leaking oil. But I thought it was interesting that maybe it was actually leaking from there at some point around the boot. All I know is that the fluid level hasn’t been going and down and I’m not leaking power steering anymore.
It looks bad around the crank sensor. I had this fail previously, a long time ago, several years and had to replace it.
I brought my car into a shop for something else, and may not have it for a few days.
It certainly looks like an oil pan gasket leak. But it’s very hard to tell for sure. I was crawling around underneath my truck today, and the oil pan gasket area looks similar; but from prior experience my oil leak is most likely occurring at the drain plug, and the under-truck wind (from driving) is blowing the oil around to various nearby surfaces.
Don’t dish amsoil, I think they are top of the line, only use their 2 cycle oil with non oxyginated gas in my 90 hp 35 year old motor, sure 20 years ago when I bought it one cylandar had been worked on by the previous owner, 3 at 120 replaced one at 90, but last year bud borrowed the boat to take his visitors water skiing, big kids mid 20’s, 37 mph is what gps says as it is a really long story, and I have no stinking gauges, bought out the cousin, now a 4 week a year boat instead of 2 week a year boat.
That is the inner CV joint/boot, I don’t see any grease leaking.
And I was criticized for saying yoshi has no mechanical aptitude. Thank you for pointing out what you saw, and reinforcing my confidence in my opinion.
3 Likes
Pointing out the identity of a part is much different that telling the community that a person is as dumb as your cat. I have never managed a company so perhaps I don’t know how to guide people.
2 Likes
At this point I think the cat would make a better mechanic.
2 Likes
Jeesh, give the kid a break. I’m sure all of you were expert mechanics from day one. Not everyone is.
He’s obviously curious and interested in learning, that counts for a lot.
6 Likes
Curiosity is helpful. Obsessing over the strength of bolts needed to attach an oil pan is not.
2 Likes
I try to be realistic about my cars. It might make some folks cringe, but I’ve been known to spray some sort of detergent on the oily spots and then squirt them with a pressure washer. You end up with a clean(ish) area and then you can monitor it to see if it’s leaking now at all. If it’s seeping and the levels are steady then the hell with it.
1 Like
You mean “diss”? As in, disparage?
I thought it was diss as in disrespect. Are people using slang for disparage now? That would be pretty classy!
I never thought about the etymology, just spelling it like I have heard it. Maybe it is like a dish at a Greek wedding
1 Like