There Ought to Be a Law...

There ought to be law you shouldn't have to take half the damn car apart and lift the engine to replace a damn oil pan gasket. The insane part about this is if they have taken away about 1/16 th of a quart of oil of volume it would slide right out. Had to remove the bracket between the motor mount and the engine to remove it and there is one crazy ass bolt between the engine and transmission that is going to be very difficult to put back.

Richard S. wrote:There ought to be law you shouldn't have to take half the damn car apart and lift the engine to replace a damn oil pan gasket. The insane part about this is if they have taken away about 1/16 th of a quart of oil of volume it would slide right out. Had to remove the bracket between the motor mount and the engine to remove it and there is one crazy ass bolt between the engine and transmission that is going to be very difficult to put back.

When I worked for a Buick dealership I could have those pans down in about 20 min. Or less if I really tried. They are designed to be worked on when up on a lift. Working on the ground adds a lot of time and effort.

Flyer5 wrote:When I worked for a Buick dealership I could have those pans down in about 20 min.

So how long did the whole job take you (remove/clean/gasket/replace)? And how long did the flat rate book pay you for?

Flyer5 wrote: When I worked for a Buick dealership I could have those pans down in about 20 min. Or less if I really tried. They are designed to be worked on when up on a lift. Working on the ground adds a lot of time and effort.

Taking off the bracket you can do it 20 minutes? I'd be impressed, that one bolt I had to use a flat wrench, turn the bolt a little, switch the wrench around to turn it a little more and keep repeating. I know they have wrenches for that but I don't have them.

I lucked out because my Brother had his engine hoist here becsue he was using it on his Bobcat. If that wasn't here it would have been very difficult.

Richard S. wrote:

Flyer5 wrote: When I worked for a Buick dealership I could have those pans down in about 20 min. Or less if I really tried. They are designed to be worked on when up on a lift. Working on the ground adds a lot of time and effort.

Taking off the bracket you can do it 20 minutes? I'd be impressed, that one bolt I had to use a flat wrench, turn the bolt a little, switch the wrench around to turn it a little more and keep repeating. I know they have wrenches for that but I don't have them.

I lucked out because my Brother had his engine hoist here becsue he was using it on his Bobcat. If that wasn't here it would have been very difficult.

There were a lot of tricks to the trade. When you work flat rate, you found them. U-joint sockets long extensions and assorted length extensions and air ratchets.

Flyer5 wrote:
There were a lot of tricks to the trade. When you work flat rate, you found them. U-joint sockets long extensions and assorted length extensions and air ratchets.

You're not getting anything but a flat wrench on the "bolt from hell". Actually went in pretty easy, I glued it with the glue gun to a skinny screwdriver. Had to snake it up in there perpendicular to the hole and then turn it around. Got it started with the world's longest pair of needle nose pliers on the threads.

Richard S. wrote:I glued it with the glue gun to a skinny screwdriver. Had to snake it up in there perpendicular to the hole and then turn it around. Got it started with the world's longest pair of needle nose pliers on the threads.

I'm sure that's just how the shop manual says to do it.
Very clever! I'd have used up my entire vocabulary of non-approved words before I thought of something like that.

That worked perfect and I'll definitely be using that trick again. I tried tape first but it kept falling off, then I though maybe some silicone but I'd have to wait for it to dry and if the damn thing fell off...

You can see it in this video around 2 min.

These are the designs that make me HATE General Motors .... and the rest of 'em, post '95!

against these idiots meeting with each other, or reproducing: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-09/g7-leaders- ... ry/6530838

SMITTY wrote:These are the designs that make me HATE General Motors .... and the rest of 'em, post '95!

To be fair Smitty it's a big engine(at least for a 6) in a very small space. As I understand it on the vehicles larger than the Regal the pan will drop out becsue the frame design is larger.

Richard S. wrote:

SMITTY wrote:These are the designs that make me HATE General Motors .... and the rest of 'em, post '95!

To be fair Smitty it's a big engine(at least for a 6) in a very small space. As I understand it on the vehicles larger than the Regal the pan will drop out becsue the frame design is larger.

We would use an engine support up top and drop the frames out of the way. Some were able to separate in two so only half had to come down. The W bodies I believe the whole frame came down. Was fairly easy when I was 20yrs old anyway.

Lots of guys around here cut the crossmembers out, do the work, then weld them back in place. Friggin engineers ...

Like doing a valve cover gasket on a Pacer! That was indirectly GM's fault too, for pulling the rug out from under a Wankel rotary that AMC had planned to use. At the 9th hour too. That left them scrambling, so they had to shoehorn that straight 6 in there to roll the car out.

That car would've been SWEEEEET with a rotary!! Ahh what might have been ...

coaledsweat wrote: Is it all scratchy looking? Ebony is a product body shops use to make black cars look real good. Lasts quite a while too.

I picked up theis kit that turtle wax makes, "black box kit" or soemthing like that. Comes with 3 products all for black, a pre wax, wax and detailer. Test are shows it's going to work really well to hide the really small paint chips.

The misuse of the word "lose" and "loose"
Mispelling of the word "propane" (propain)