• The site migration is complete! Hopefully everything transferred properly from the multiple decades old software we were using before. If you notice any issues please let me know, thanks! Also, I'm still working on things like chatbox, etc so hopefully those will be working in the next week or two.

Oil pan gasket questionable mechanic repair

robinsone

New member
I have an '04 with 203k on it. A year ago nearly to the date 10/13/14, when I had 186k on it, I had the oil pan gasket replaced by a small shop. They charged me ~$80 for a gasket and they also did the crankshaft seal. Last night I switched out the a/c compressor clutch and low and behold a puddle of oil at the passenger side engine mount. I began inspecting and it looks like shop simply applied black rtv silicone either by itself or perhaps in combination with the old gasket.

My question is would a new seal fail so quickly? It's been a year and 20k miles, I'm hard pressed to believe a new gasket would have failed this soon. Could they just have re-used the old one and used RTV silicone as a back-up. I'm a little pissed as the repair wasn't cheap.

Let me know what you guys think, thanks.
 


Turned out it was the crankshaft seal, which was also replaced a year ago. I will be going to the crank repair sleeve and a new seal as this would be the next likely culprit with a motor with 203k miles on it.
 
Nice, hey any advice on removing the harmonic balancer if i don't have air tools. I know there are pulley holder tools out there but none seem to align with the GP pulley at all, at least from what I've been able to find unless I missed something.
 


you take the plastic shield off and the bolt of the pulled ends up right under the metal of the inner wheel well.

002_zpsgvd5fobv.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 002_zpsgvd5fobv.jpg
    002_zpsgvd5fobv.jpg
    58.6 KB · Views: 7
I knew there were special, or at last additional bolts I'll need to buy as well as the type of puller to use. If I were to thread these bolts could I use a pry bar between two of them to break the bolt free with a breaker bar. Are those bolts beefy enough to counteract a breaker bar at all?
 
i used this style puller and the bolts listed in that thread with a washer so they dont pull through. this one the drive bolt there fits in the threaded crank bolt. so the end dont fit well on some pullers.

only you flip the silver part so its flat to the balancer. do not pry any thing, it has to be pulled off with a puller.

harmonic_balancer_puller.jpg


and red neck crank bolt removal

 
If you have a helper and a good ratchet.. remove the connector to the ICM. Put your ratchet on the bolt with the helper er..holding it.. and give the key a quick blip and turn it off. That way the starter will remove the bolt for you.

Poof...redneckin made easy
 
I also want to know, since the crankshaft seal gasket does not appear to be sealing correctly. The crankshaft seal doesn't make contact with the crankshaft itself, but the harmonic balancer if I'm correct. So the portion of the harmonic balancer that contacts the seal has worn down. I should be able to replace the harmonic balancer if I wanted and prevent the oil leak. Would the crankshaft repair sleeve then go over the harmonic balancer? Just wondering
 


The sleeve would slide over the harmonic balancer snout, just make sure you use a new gm seal with the sleeve, they wear together, Bill was yelling at me for this, I say if you replaced the seal within 15-20 miles you're good, he will say otherwise, but just do a new GM front seal with the sleeve and it'll be solid.
 
Awesome! Thanks ScottyDoggs, you and BillBoost37 should right a book one day, it'd be an easy right for the both of you and I'm sure it'd do well selling, lol.
 


I'm having impact gun issues and don't know why. I've borrowed everything. I have a reading of 125 psi on the compressor tank which is small. I'm sure the gun is good I imagine, but I'm not getting good torque at all, I'm not sure what's going on. I've had a similar issue with this same tank but now I have a different gun. Is there a flow rate to these tanks I can't seem to find anything. There is a slight leak at the connection to the gun, but nothing major.

Any ideas at all, I can't figure it out at all.
 
So i tried the redneck method and the breaker bar fell off. It freaked me out and I shut it down I was attempting to bump it real quick but it didn't work. There isn't any chance of accidental engine damage here, that's the last thing I want or need to do.
 
Back
Top