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How to change oil pan gasket.

10K views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  LaRae 
#1 ·
How to change "top" oil pan gasket on 08 Jeep Sahara.
Note: This model has a main oil pan, and an extension, so in this how-to I will only discuss how to replace a bad gasket on the top one. The bottom one(on the oil pan itself) is much easier and is the same process.


Materials and Tools:
1) Top and/or bottom oil pan gasket. The top is a rubber coated gasket.
2) Gasket Sealer (I highly recommend this) I use the yellow sealer it tends to be much tackier and leaves less residue inside the oil pan itself.
3) Putty knife or some type of scraper
4) Rags for wiping off oil and residue on the pan
5) 1gallon bucket to drain oil
6) 13 mm socket for oil drain plug
7) 10mm socket with at least 8" extension
8) 15mm socket to take dust cover off of flywheel case

Prelims: Here is what we are working on

As you can see, it was an easy diagnoise to see why my oil has been low.


First:
Position a one gallon bucket under the oil pan (bolt) so that you can drain your oil. Use a 13mm socket to take the bolt out and drain the pan. Make sure to not drop the bolt in the pan. Wait a few minutes until the pan drains the majority of the oil.




Second:
Now we need to remove the Dust Cover. This piece doesnt hold oil nor does it have a gasket or sealer. It simply covers the flywheel from getting debri in it. Use a 15mm socket to take out the top three and two side bolts. The remaining bolts in the middle make require a short extension of an open ended wrench.


Removed, showing flywheel.


Thrid:
Now that we have the dust cover off, we need to break loose the plastic piece which holds the coolant lines. Use a small screwdrive to open the pin and pull the lines out(only a few cm's) to allow room to get a socket and extension up to the upper oil pan cover.



Fourth.
Unscrew all 10mm bolts holding the pan to the bottom of the crankcase. Note: their are two small 10mm studs(with nuts) that hold the pan on near the front of the enginge. Make sure to not break or loose these.

Here are the two studs for reference:


Fifth:
Take the oil pan down and use a putty or sharp clean knife to get off residue and the old rubber gasket. Clean it off with a rag and make sure no particles are near the groove. Do the exact same thing to the bottom of the crank case. Make sure to not mess up the crankcase gasket silicon as show below in the first pic, only clean where the gasket goes and the groove. No need to ruin a crankcase gasket.


 
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#2 ·



Using sealer:
Once that is done, put a very thin layer of gasket sealer on the oil pan extension as seen below. Be very precise with this, you dont want excess gasket glue breaking off inside the pain and block up the oil pump filter. Now place the gasket firmly on the pan extension and its ready to go back up.
****Make sure this is clean and that no extra gasket sealer gets into this***





Get a friend or a block to help hold the pan while you bolt it back up. Start in the middle of the pan and run both bolts on each side back into the crankcase to secure it temporarly. Now you want to work in a "middle to end" manner staggering(side to side) in order to properly seal the gasket. I used about 12-15ft lbs of torque. Just make sure to not over or under tighten. The gasket should then be flush and minimum gasket sealer should be showing on the outside.



Now you are ready to replace the dust cover with the 15mm bolts. These can be cranked well beyond 15ft-lbs.

Finally, put your 13mm oil pan bolt back in so you are ready to refill with oil.
 
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