Ok, so...

[ssurgul]

A pro mechanic I ain't.  Never claimed nor even really tried to be.  But DAMN, I'm happy.  I just managed to get the fucking oil pan gasket redone, since the paper one Thrifty sold me, with the assurance it'd do just fine, failed like a 5th grader in college.  We'll see in the morning if this does the trick at stopping that wonderful oil leak that is riding the alternator belt into the engine compartment, and thrashing the alternator like there's no tomorrow.  And all this without having to rent any tools.  YAY!

Comments

[talesin.livejournal.com]

Uh, generally you pull the oil pan, clean the mating lip and the other side. If you want to you can use a paper gasket, but they're 99% useless. Personally, I'd just put a THIN line of RTV (liquid gasket, aka latex sealant) around the outer lip and then re-bolt it. Make SURE that you put the right bolt in the right spot... some cars (as mine) use two different lengths, and if you put the wrong one in the wrong hole, it'll tear the shit out of a belt (as mine is now scored up).

Usually the only reason you need to RTV it though is that the oil pan got hit and slightly bent, and won't match up flush.. or if you drive aggressively. And remember to tighten the bolts crosspattern, rather than going along in a line. :)

[ssurgul.livejournal.com]

Yep, yep, and yep. And nope to the bolts being different sizes/lengths. Toyota solved it in a more elegant way. They use two nuts on mounted posts for the alignment holes and the rest of the 14 bolts are all identical.

The paper gasket is what was used on the assurance it 'would' work as well as the RTV, but that turned out to be bullshit. It started because I had to replace the engine on the car as the original was never maintained, had a faulty rear main seal, and eventually ate itself. Part of the replacement warranty was that I had to replace many of the gaskets, the oil pan being one. But at least now it shouldn't be a problem as I used the RTV that seemed to indicate it was best for oil-centric seals.