DIY Oil Pan Gasket

[VBNSX]

Missing a few picks but here it is:

*from memory..

From underneath the car you'll have to remove the parking brake cable support and that whole rear rod underneath the car.. just a few bolts that should pose no problem.

Next remove the exhaust piping:

After that you should be clear to the oil pan.

Remove all the 10 mm bolts and then the 4 nuts and usually the pan will stay elevated (due to being stuck for so long). GENTLY use a rubber mallot and tap it. It should fall right out.
Oil pan w/ tore up gasket:

picture of exposed oil pick up etc.

At this point there's probably a lot of grime and grease on the pan. Please practice good habits and at least clean it... here I cleaned it with parts cleaner... (it was CAKED with grease and grime) the outside was at least.. inside was decent.
outside

inside

when putting the gasket back on use honda bond:

after this please make sure that when you put the bolts back on always put them cati-corner (sp?) from each other. This applies to when you put it on and as you torque them down. This way you won't end up with a 'bubble' on the gasket. Torque to specs accordingly.

x

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Question, should I drain the oil before removing the oil pan? :tongue:

Great write up! I gotta get around to doing mine!

 

[VBNSX]

Question, should I drain the oil before removing the oil pan? :tongue:

Great write up! I gotta get around to doing mine!

Hehe..
technically.. you don't HAVE to... just be sure to have a bunch of towels.. :biggrin:

x

 

[drew]

RTV is a no-no on the gasket.

My 91 oil pan had rusty walls...yours looks nice. (my car: alabama car for 12 years...CA for the balance, 105K miles)

**

Re: clutch change:

how high did you raise your vehicle?
Clearance sufficient?

If you get time, can you take some shots of how and where you supported the engine.

Are you going to replace or resurface your flywheel?

Drew

 

[VBNSX]

RTV is a no-no on the gasket.

My 91 oil pan had rusty walls...yours looks nice. (my car: alabama car for 12 years...CA for the balance, 105K miles)

**

Re: clutch change:

how high did you raise your vehicle?
Clearance sufficient?

If you get time, can you take some shots of how and where you supported the engine.

Are you going to replace or resurface your flywheel?

Drew

Regarding the honda bond... you'll be surprised to see that when you remove the oil pan gasket... there's actually reminants of honda bond on it...

as for the clutch question.. i'm going to copy and paste your response and put it in the diy clutch area so that this thread doesn't get hi-jacked.

x

 

[drew]

Regarding the honda bond... you'll be surprised to see that when you remove the oil pan gasket... there's actually reminants of honda bond on it...

Ahh, so this would be at least the second time the gasket has been replaced. (IMHO, the probable reason for the previous failure.)

It was pretty gunky, so no surprise to me that they used RTV on it. :wink:

Drew

 

[Larry Bastanza]

For sure there is no sealant of any kind on this gasket from the factory. They should be assembled bone dry with no sealer.

HTH,
LarryB

 

[NSXTech]

HondaBond (RTV, etc) acks like a lubricant and allows the gasket to squish out during tightening which allows oil to squish out later. This problem (if squishing is to be considered a problem) is unique to engines with painted oil pans and rubber gaskets both of which become quite slippery when doped.

MB

 

[VBNSX]

cool.. well i learned somethin new... Never had a problem with it before on the other engines but ok.. :tongue:

All makes sense to me..
x

 

[Malibu Rapper]

For sure there is no sealant of any kind on this gasket from the factory. They should be assembled bone dry with no sealer.

I just took on this project this weekend. Everything was really easy except for putting the pan back in place w/ the gasket and keeping that gasket from sliding off. I got hit with so many drips of oil on my head trying to put this pan back in, it's as if the car were pissing on me laughing. Removing the J pipe was a piece of cake, a lot easier than I had read about.

My 95 service manual shows an illustration that says "Apply liquid gasket to these points" and they are all near the corners of the pan. Just thin lines of liquid gasket on the 4 interior corners. I can scan it in if someone wants to see it. I would assume they do this mainly to keep that damn gasket on the pan when you put it up in place.

Larry, can you post the squeeze method for the oil pan gasket? I searched and searched but could only find reference to it. Thanks!

 

[goldNSX]

Still have the OEM mainfold? Get one of these. Is it necessary to remove it? How long did it take you?

 

[MJK]

That is a good point ^.

If you are swapping out the OEM manifolds with aftermarket headers, it is probably a good idea to swap the oil pan gasket at the same time. Getting off an aftermarket header from the front cyl bank is not something I would want to repeat any more often that was absolutely neccessary.

PS I understand the the squeeze method to be basically tightening the oil pan bolts in the service manual sequence, once hand tight then repeated to torque spec, but instead of tightening to the torque number going visually on how far the gasket squeezes with the torque relative to the side of the oil pan. I tightened the bolts in sequence so that the gasket was even to side of the pan - which was pretty close but not exactly to torque specs.

 

[NSX1145]

For sure there is no sealant of any kind on this gasket from the factory. They should be assembled bone dry with no sealer.

HTH,
LarryB

Exactly. Honda bond on the stock gasket will surely cause a premature oil leak.

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Larry, can you post the squeeze method for the oil pan gasket? I searched and searched but could only find reference to it. Thanks!

What you want to do is install the gasket, then tighten the bolts per the sequence in the service manual. What you want is the gasket to stretch just so it is even with the edge of the oil pan all the way around.

HTH,
LarryB