When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I replaced my factory oil pan gasket a couple years ago with the organge gasket. it seemed to be all good for a while, then started leaking. of course, when i attempted to stop the leak by tightening down a bit, it started dripping like crazy. there are terrible holes in the road near my office, and I know that the pan scraped several times. I'm replacing the gasket right now with the "hard" silicone or eurethane or whatever it is that Roger is selling. Anyway, it occurred to me that it might have been the jarring of the oil pan that caused the orange gasket to leak. maybe not. just a theory...if that's the case, that might be a legitimate reason to steer away from them. if it were easy to replace the gasket it wouldn't really matter, but for the guys who have it on the to do list, you'll find that it's not a task you want to do over.
I know that Honda bond is supposed to be pretty legit. I've never used it. I'm just curious (because we all tend to have encounters that end up with our oil pans having unfriendly contact with concrete or asphault) about the possibility of oil leaks starting after scraping. I wouldn't think it would matter if someone used the old cork gaskets, and I'm guessing that Roger's new gasket is going to be able to handle that type of force. Does Honda bond set up so firmly that an impact could crack the material? (perhaps this might be dependent on how long it's been in place...maybe it's resiliant at first, becomes more rigid over a long period of time? just curious...)
It was the over-tightening of the bolts that caused the leaks. I installed a silicone gasket (orange) on the Stepson back in 2007. It didn't leak for 10 years. My main power cable from the battery to starter developed a bad place in the cable over time originally due to a fire under the car during the PO's tenure. Anyway, I had a great relationship with the mechanic at my local oil change facility who graciously replaced my main power cable for free during a slow time in their work. His work on the power cable was spot on. However, While he was under the car. he noticed that the nylock nuts on my oil pan seemed loose and he proceeded to innocently tighten them all thinking he was doing me a favor.
The car leaked oil from the pan as if there was no gasket at all. I got home, saw the mess, saw what had happened, and called the mechanic to ask if he had tightened the nylock nuts. He affirmed my suspicions and I explained the problem. The only solution at that point was to replace the pan gasket since the silicone had deformed and torn under the pressure.
Kevin,
I will say this: if you are dragging and scraping your oil pan, you car is TOO low. Raise your car to at least close to factory specs and you will be amazed how much better it drive and rides.
Hey John,
My motor mounts were sagging a tiny bit. i bought some new ones....I copied Simon's idea...drilled holes and filled them with 2 part eurethane so I'm hoping they'll last longer than I do.
But to your point, when i installed the orange gasket, i went with the "spec" with I think was super low torque. The gasket worked great until one day it didn't. The only real variable was hitting the huge pot holes that City of Southlake seems to think don't need to be fixed. The street by my office looks like it would be some kind of Red Bull extreme course. When it started leaking the only thing I could think of that might help was to tighten the bolts a bit, but just like what you experienced, it leaked much worse. When i removed the orange gasket I looked it over pretty closely and the identations would make me think that it absolutely would not be leaking, and i saw nothing that looked like a tear. Head scratcher.
Kevin,
I will say this: if you are dragging and scraping your oil pan, you car is TOO low. Raise your car to at least close to factory specs and you will be amazed how much better it drive and rides.
Also check your motor mounts, the oil pan should be even (same level) as the lower cross brace that encloses the steering rack
Seriously? Motor oil ALWAYS has some fuel in it..in various forms, in various driving conditions. (and tons of other VOCs in the pan chemistry)
This silicone gasket, is not the same as a cheap silicone -hose- that hates VOCs, swells, and falls apart eventually.
Installed correctly (which is not that hard MOST of the time) it should last your lifetime, and more.
I put one of these gaskets in my '79, which or course has CIS, which of course has problems. In the process of trouble shooting a CIS system it is stupid easy to hydrolock the motor with fuel, which I did. Probably lots of good options at this point, but a bad option was the one I chose, which was to walk away and come back after several weeks. The good news was that the car was no longer hydrolocked. The bad news was that the fuel had leaked down into the crankcase. The orange gasket with reduced to, basically, a layer of gooey slime between the pan and the block. I might have photos somewhere, but I don't know where. So, no question. Fuel can destroy the orange gaskets. The only mitigating factor is that this is Hawaii, where all the gas has ethanol in it, that the ethanol will absorb moisture from the (very humid) air, and when it does this not only does it become very stinky, but it also becomes acidic( I am told, have not actually run ph tests), and when it is in the acidic state it will eat a lot of things that may hold up in other situations. A good example is the little fuel hose between the tank and the pump. They last maybe a year or two here before turning to goo. So, this process may happen differently or less in other places, but for sure it can happen and probably does happen to some degree everywhere.
I put one of these gaskets in my '79, which or course has CIS, which of course has problems. In the process of trouble shooting a CIS system it is stupid easy to hydrolock the motor with fuel, which I did. Probably lots of good options at this point, but a bad option was the one I chose, which was to walk away and come back after several weeks. The good news was that the car was no longer hydrolocked. The bad news was that the fuel had leaked down into the crankcase. The orange gasket with reduced to, basically, a layer of gooey slime between the pan and the block. I might have photos somewhere, but I don't know where. So, no question. Fuel can destroy the orange gaskets. The only mitigating factor is that this is Hawaii, where all the gas has ethanol in it, that the ethanol will absorb moisture from the (very humid) air, and when it does this not only does it become very stinky, but it also becomes acidic( I am told, have not actually run ph tests), and when it is in the acidic state it will eat a lot of things that may hold up in other situations. A good example is the little fuel hose between the tank and the pump. They last maybe a year or two here before turning to goo. So, this process may happen differently or less in other places, but for sure it can happen and probably does happen to some degree everywhere.
I'm not a fan of the red silicone gasket as I find it just to "squishy" to make a good seal and if you have any crankcase pressure from worn piston rings or forced induction or similar it just doesn't hold up with the low torque spec of the oil pan fasteners.
Installing a gasket of firmer material like the new green ones from Greg or Roger seems to be a much better solution for less squish and proper torquing capacity. Unfortunately for me, Greg released his green gasket 2 weeks after I put the motor back into my Spyder with a new red silicone one. It was torqued upside down on an engine stand with a 1/4" torque wrench set to spec, and guess what....it seeps - doesn't drip but isn't bonw dry like it should be.
As far as impacting the road with it - that's bad and with the light torque spec and squishynesa of the gasket, a single impact could probably create a leak. If running the car at a low front ride height, at a minimum, you need the 928MS.bash plates, which will also save your alternator and AC compressor.
Jager engineering also makes a urethane slab called a speedmount that can help support a motor and absorb vibration if the motor mounts are a bit tired. I have one in both my cars even though all my motor mounts are good to help prevent wear to them rather than a band-aid for worn ones, but supposed to work either way.
928MS bash plates installed on the sides
Profile of them from the front of the car showing how they'd hit first to protect the spoiler and engine components.
I knew about the speedmount....but I had two new mounts. As I mentioned above, I wanted to make them "forever" so I drlled holes and drained whatever the fluid is inside, and filled them with 2 part urethane. They're pretty rigid now, but still softer than a solid mount. I can't see how they would ever collapse more than maybe 1/8 inch. I'm probably going to get a bit more vibration, I can live with that. I just don't want to ever have to change them again.
Originally Posted by Petza914
I'm not a fan of the red silicone gasket as I find it just to "squishy" to make a good seal and if you have any crankcase pressure from worn piston rings or forced induction or similar it just doesn't hold up with the low torque spec of the oil pan fasteners.
Installing a gasket of firmer material like the new green ones from Greg or Roger seems to be a much better solution for less squish and proper torquing capacity. Unfortunately for me, Greg released his green gasket 2 weeks after I put the motor back into my Spyder with a new red silicone one. It was torqued upside down on an engine stand with a 1/4" torque wrench set to spec, and guess what....it seeps - doesn't drip but isn't bonw dry like it should be.
As far as impacting the road with it - that's bad and with the light torque spec and squishynesa of the gasket, a single impact could probably create a leak. If running the car at a low front ride height, at a minimum, you need the 928MS.bash plates, which will also save your alternator and AC compressor.
Jager engineering also makes a urethane slab called a speedmount that can help support a motor and absorb vibration if the motor mounts are a bit tired. I have one in both my cars even though all my motor mounts are good to help prevent wear to them rather than a band-aid for worn ones, but supposed to work either way.
928MS bash plates installed on the sides
Profile of them from the front of the car showing how they'd hit first to protect the spoiler and engine components.
04-17-2023, 02:11 PM
orange oil pan leak....possible cause?
