Replacing ISX oil pan...OH what a pain!

[Ivylog]

Cracked the corner of the aluminum oil pan going into a gas station on our 08 HR Navigator...didn’t think anything about the dip going into it. This was the 3rd station in Rawlings WY...1st out of diesel, 2nd ran out at 47 gallons...lucky me.

 

Was able to grind a U in all 3 directions and JB weld it up enough to finish our trip out West. Even with a fiberglass patch over the JB it still leaked slightly. 

Decided to replace instead of trying to TIG weld the oil saturated aluminum. Found a used pan (rare and nothing like a truck’s) for $600. Made gravel ramps to get the back up enough to have more room to work. Naturally the exhaust and the hitch were in the way of getting the bolts out...cut Vs into the plate that holds the engine mount to get enough room to get those bolts out on the front of the engine.

Finally got all the bolts out BUT the front of the oil pan could not drop down enough to clear the oil pump as it was hitting the hitch. Look into raising the front on the engine up but would have to remove the front pulley to get to the 2 large motor mount bolts. Decided angling the hitch (remove 6 of the 8 bolts holding it on) and jack the ball up changing the angle (lowering the hitch) enough that the pan came off.

 

Hooked a shop vacuum to the crankcase vent so I could add a valve to the drain saving the oil with only 3K miles on it. Will start carrying one as instead of dumping 12 gallons of oil it would have let me patch it without loss of oil and the cracks would be dry.

 

[Just Jim]

Wow... sounds like all that might have taken you a couple hours to do. LOL.  Thanks for sharing.  Something I will try to avoid.

[Ivylog]

Took almost that long to get the SS flex pipe off the muffler’s pipe without destroying it. There was 6” of pipe inside the flex so I cut 3” off of the solid pipe... insurance that I’ll never have to take it apart again.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Ivylog

[Dennis H]

Imagine if you had to pay a 'tech' to do that work...ugh! Great job of patching then finishing up the job correctly. Many would have simply left the patch and dealt with the small oil leak....Dennis

 

[Ivylog]

Not sure a tech would think to pivot the hitch...took me awhile to come up with that idea and I wasn’t sure it would work.
 

The drip was less than 2 oz in 2 months, but if the 2 patches came off you could ruin a engine before someone behind waved you over. 
I wasn’t to concerned about the JB weld coming off  because after grinding the 3 U, I put the cutoff disk on and cut groves in both sides of the U. The first pan I found was $1500 but I kept searching using some of the #s from it. Amazing what all you can find today on the internet.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Ivylog