What's new
What's new

OT/Fix for Ford F-150 oil pan leaking?

sandiapaul

Titanium
Joined
Mar 19, 2004
Location
Princeton, NJ USA
Hi,

My 94 F-150 is about on its last legs. The oil pan is leaking and the pan itself is heavily rusted on the outside. The motor needs to be lifted to change the pan and I am not going to do that. I'd like to keep this truck going for another year or 2, I barely drive it, maybe 2 trips a week of about 10 miles.

Any ideas of some temp. fix that will keep it going?

Thanks,

Paul
 
Where is it leaking? Along the gasket, around the drain plug or through small holes in the pan wall?

Might try cleaning very well with solvent and glopping on some RTV sealant or a gasket sealer.

Steve
 
Poor old truck, rusted out oil pan kind of hard to (rig) . Would take a whole lot of jb weld.
qinp2.jpg

qinp3.jpg
 
Same thing happend to mine I was able to braze the pan on the truck
no problem after that
good Luck
Greg
 
I've repaired oil leaks in large oil filled power transformers using a special epoxy designed for that purpose. It's not cheap stuff, but works very well. I don't recall off the top of my head who makes this stuff, but I could find out tomorrow. A google search for transformer leak repair epoxy might turn up something. To find the leak, I mix blue chalk line chalk with alcohol and paint it on the suspect area. Once the alcohol dries, the remaining chalk dust will turn dark blue at the slightest leak. Hope that helps.
 
i always said this was a ford thing,not a canada thing.
drain oil.
wash suspect area with brake cleaner.
scrape and wash again.
rough up with coarse sandpaper.
i use an epoxy putty called Tech Steel,knead up a piece of it,smear it over the leaking area,trying to push the epoxy into the holes.it can be smoothed with a wet finger.
after curing,smooth over a little with sandpaper,feathering the edges.

a coat of engine enamel paint,refill crankcase with oil and away you go.

i have used this product to repair cracks in my riding mower crankcase 12 years ago.its still holding.
cracked battery case.
hole in gas tanks,still leaking fuel.


Tech Steel
 
Had the pan on my old 92 F150 replaced in Feb. 120 bucks for the pan and gasket and about 600 bucks labor. Sad part is that it's being scrapped at the end of the month.
Mike
 
Drain the oil.....clean it....sand off the loose rust......JB weld.....job done. On an indycar I used to work on the ham fisted no driven driver we had broke the gearbox. One gear made it most of the way through the cast magnesium case. We had no spare gearbox so I cleaned it up, mashed JB weld in the bulged out, cracked up area and then I hammered the area back in and coated it with more JB....no leaks, Ok we will replace the case before the next race. Not!!!! We ended up running it the rest of the season! It held up fine.
 
Last edited:
Moonlight has it- just to add one thing- use the JB Quick rather than the regular JB weld- If you hold a finger over the pin hole atfer cleaning and just before applying the JB, the surface will stay clean and the JB will adhere better.
 
I had an 86 Ford that I mig welded a patch over the perforated metal area. It still weeped a little, no problem, I figured I'd braze up the weeps. After the explosion, I took the pan off and did the job again on the bench with a new platch and mig welding and was succesful. The explosion pushed the crank seal out and I had to take the trans out to fix that.

When my 97 Ford stated leaking, I cleaned the area real good with a wire wheel and soldered the perforations with a soldering iron and regular plumber's solder and flux. Very easy. Still holding 5 years later.

Both of these were done with the oil drained out.

The whoosh of the pan explosion was very entertaining.

Frank
 
Last edited:
gas pumper said:

After the explosion,
I worked with a guy that had a Mustang with a high-volume/low-hanging oil pan.

It was dented up and he said it would hold 1/2 quart less because of the bottom being dented in.

It had a bad leak around the drain plug.

I wouldn't weld it on the car, so he got out the MIG unit and did it himself.

After draining the oil, he started welding and we heard a loud hollow thump, and a ting -ting bell sound.

The thump was the fuel rich oil residue igniting, and the ting-ting bell sound was the breather cap off of the valve cover flying about 50 feet away.

He put oil back in it and started it right up.

There was a large black spot on one of my welding gloves he had used.
He calmly said it was from the fire that came out of the drain plug hole.:eek:

It still ran ok, until he blew the motor up a month later. He said he gained his extra 1/2 quart capacity back after the explosion.:D

JAckal:cheers:
 
Just went through this scenario,With a buddys 2000 Ford 3500 Deisel, Ford wanted $400. for the pan, and another $2000 plus labor. Local garages wouldn't touch the job.
We ended up with a KIT, Some guy sells out east, near Boston.
Kit consists of a fiberglass boot that fits up under the pan, You sand and clean your pan, mix up the two part epoxy, apply half to the fiberglass boot, and smear the other half on your oil pan. Jam it up on the pan with a jack and wooden wedges to hold the
sides in.
It was a rotten stinky job, about 3 hrs, two guys with the truck on a lift. Can't imagine getting it done laying on your back.
Kit wasn't cheap ,about $300.
The epoxy was [ams-s 8802b ty.11] Had a military spec , for use on jet fuel tanks.
The outfit we bought the KIT from , had a nice video on his web site, showing how it's done, Using a shop vac, on the oil drain hole to suck the oil back into the pan, instead of leaking out into your new epoxy.
Google[Ford deisel oil pan fix] Or E-mail me and I can send you the web page.
BEEN A COUPLE OF MONTHS SINCE WE DID IT, AND NO PROBLEMS.
DAVE [ACME THREAD]

This was for a Deisel engine, I 'm sure your pan is differant, But maybe he can steer you onto some help. He did say he's selling the kits like hot-cakes. [thanks Ford]
 
Thanks for all the ideas! I had in the back of my mind a couple of them...but it was going to be one of those things that if I did it I wouldn't tell anyone! Now I can with confidence!

Paul
 
Frank,

"After the explosion..."

Sorry, I know it wasn't funny at the time but that was funny. I have to shake my head and smile at the same time at some of the things I got away with.

Dave
 
the jb weld works well too,just not as quick to set up.
napa probably sells some sort of epoxy stick that is oil/gas resistant.
loctite sells instant gas tank repair,it would work too.
i have probably repaired 10 pans,replaced just as many.
i would rather patch them.
replacing the pan in the truck means dropping the oil pump into the pan,putting it back after.
some people are starting to believe profanity is my second language....
 
Did a 92 F150 with an inline 6 last summer.

A friend had a 92 F150 with the infamous ford rusted out oil pan. Too rusty to epoxy, or weld. In the past if it's just a pinhole, I've slathered a piece of sheet metal in JB weld, and pasted it over the hole. As long as you clean it real good, and sand it down it will hold.

Changing the pan wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be, just undid the motor mounts, and lifted it with the cherry picker. The old pan was able to weasel out, and the new one went in pretty easy. Felpro sells a silicone gasket with temporary plastic studs that hold it in place while you put the pan on. Makes the job a lot easier. This was for an inline 6, dunno about a V8, but I'd imagine the shorter pan would be easier. The pan and gasket were less than $200, made him do most of the work, just told him what to do. :cheers:
 
Just went through this scenario,With a buddys 2000 Ford 3500 Deisel, Ford wanted $400. for the pan, and another $2000 plus labor. Local garages wouldn't touch the job.

Book time is apparently 15 hours. Lots of other parts to remove--if you follow fords procedure...

Came across this method a while back, cut out the crossmember, and weld it back in when you are done;
 

Attachments

  • ford 7.3 oil pan r and r IMG_0567.jpg
    ford 7.3 oil pan r and r IMG_0567.jpg
    90.6 KB · Views: 21,390








 
Back
Top