From the pic, it looks like the timing cover gasket has been pushed out, which is why I commented on the pan as you would have to take off the cover.

 

yep...see that now. Timing cover needs to come off which requires front of pan to be dropped

 

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner chimera96, but yes it’s the timing cover gasket. You’re correct, the oil pan has been off before. You may not remember it, but this is the engine that I rebuilt about a year and a half ago. Which leads me to this question.

I have never had the oil pan off while the engine was in the car, and I read that the front of the oil pan only has to be dropped an inch or so to clear the path for the bottom of the cover. Do you have a simple write up for this?

 

I haven't seen a write-up, but the clearance with the stock kmember is a pain. with the Felpro blue, the only cleaning you should really have to do is with the 4 corners, and just a good wipe down with brake clean or alcohol. Make sure that the metal washers in the bolt holes don't stick to the studs in the front/back when taking off the old gasket. In taking mine on and off (I did this process a number of times...), I could not get enough clearance in the front to get the pan off the studs, so I removed the studs with the pan in place. With an aftermarket kmember I did not have to remove the engine mounts.

I am fairly sure on a stock kmember, that the mounts need to be removed. Support the engine with a hoist. or use a jack and 2x4 under the balancer, then provide enough pressure that you are able to remove the engine mount bolts. You should then be able to get enough clearance to fish a new gasket on/off. If you use the jack method, be careful not to put too much pressure (if you see the car move at all, you have gone too far). You will need to remove the starter, dust shield (not sure what this looks like on an auto), and oil cooler if equipped.

 

Wow, that sounds like a lot more work than I was hoping. Would it be possible to just slightly pull the right side of the timing cover off and slip some rtv down there to seal it up? Because I don’t have an engine hoist where my car is located.

 

you really don't want a BS pan gasket install to fix a TC gasket. Both need to be done right

Rotate engine so #6 is TDC. That crank position gives the most clearance.

Put floor jack under pan and just take the weight of the engine slightly. Remove long MM bolts and then use floor jack to raise engine about 3". Use small cut blocks of 2x4 between engine & mount and lower motor so engine is now sitting on these "spacers"

You will need to remove the starter and dust shield or TC dust cover for whatever trans you have. Make sure you don't pinch any electrical or parts between rear motor and cowel when you raise motor. You may also need to disconnect exhaust at CATS . Pull dip stick & external oil cooler lines and filter.

If you can't get the pan all the way out you can fish the new gasket on it. You may need to cut the inside circle where the dip stick tube goes through if you can't get the gasket under it and just slide it through the slit to get over the dip stick tube. Use Permatex Black "ultra" RTV on the corners where front & rear "curved" parts meet the flat part of the block between gasket & block

The TC stuff can happen once you get the pan about 1" below the TC but having a few more inches really helps I pulling old gasket and putting new on

You can reuse the pan gasket you have if you clean it well. Acetone works

 

Just be super careful on the oil pan gasket with the metal O rings. Both times I pulled off the gasket, the O rings stuck to the studs in the rear. If the O rings come out, you cannot re-use the gasket.

 

It’s been awhile since I updated y’all. Currently the car is running well, again, and has no leaks as of yet that I can spot. Thanks for the help guys.

 

How was the kmember clearance and fishing the gasket? What was the hardest part of the project?

 

The hardest part was by far replacing the passenger side valve cover gasket just kidding... This is my third optispark to put on the car including the original when I rebuilt it 10k miles ago so that part isn’t fun but everytime I get faster so it’s definitely not the easiest part but there’s no surprises with it. As for the timing cover, I did some more searching around and tried a different method. I pulled the first 3 bolts out of the oil pan just so it would drop ever so slightly and then slid the timing cover about 1/4th of an inch forward and used black stuff oil resistant silicone all around it and let it set over night. I know this wasn’t the recommended way by y’all but I decided on this method because I have plans to pull the engine next year and mod it with a cam, heads, and carbureted intake manifold w/ a traditional distributor and put it in an El Camino or some other muscle truck / car and build a separate BIG engine for my Z/28. That’s why I went for this fix versus the full way. I’ll do the
timing cover and pan when I remove the engine later.

 

Awesome that it is back on the road. Not doing the pan too with the cover off can lead to leaking, but given the short time frame, you may be okay. Good luck and keep us posted on the other projects.

 

I will man. Thanks for the help