kkollwitz

Since April or so the oil pan gasket leaks, maybe a quart a month. I assume it's the gasket because most of the little bolts has a bead of oil hanging from it. Replacing the gasket doesn't look straighforward (that is, expensive to pay to have it done) so I wonder if there's any point in checking the bolts and tightening any that aren't properly torqued. It's easy enough to add a quart a month, but I have to keep replacing the pizza boxes on my garage floor.

ryegli

i did an oil pan replacement on my 95 3.4 and i gotta tell ya its not easy but its not that hard it takes some time probably all day at least if you dont have a car lift. im assuming you dont. if you dont wanna go threw the troble you might be able to drain your oil all the way out like let it drip for like and hour or something and then loosen your bolts pull that oil pan down as much as you can without taking everything apart and then maybe you can get that gasket off i had to take my oil pan all the way off cuz it got cut in half by something i hit on the highway but. you might be able to get away with it just changing your gasket, if you dont have enough room to get it off you might be able to spray the oil off with some carb cleaner or something and then just put oil resistant gasket maker/sealer around the whole thing and seal it dont tighten those bolts too tight though or you might worep the pan mine was like 16th inch sheet metal if yours is thick i guess you dont have to worry about it too much but if its like mine.... best to get the tourqe rating on it. if it dont work then i would do it the right way but i bet you could get it done without geting all crazy taking your wole car apart like i did. by the way if your leaking retighting the bolts wont help. your gasket seal is breached and oil already has a wet channel path out so you can tight it as tight as you can and it wont help its like how water runs better if the path is already wet

kkollwitz

Thanks for that quick & informative reply.

97z28k&N

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/ls1...et-ls1-832002/

Make sure it IS the oil pan gasket before replacing/ having it replaced.

kkollwitz

Thanks. Yes, I plan to have a repair shop ID the leak and fix. This is more than my skills are up to.

97z28k&N

If it were me, I'd find the leak myself THEN have the repair shop fix it.

I had taken my 97' to a chevy dealer a few years ago for an unknown leak to be fixed. Oil was leaking off of the transmission bellhousing. The dealer tried telling me two things that I knew weren't true. Blown head gasket because my heat didn't work (heater core was clogged) and rear main seal was shot. Luckily, I knew that the LT1 has a common leak that the intake manifold that leaks off the bellhousing so I stopped them before they tried doing $2000 worth of unnecessary work.

The leak ended up being the intake manifold.

Long story short, try to locate the leak the best you can. Wipe down the area and wait for it to leak again so maybe you can find the source of the leak.

kkollwitz

"Wipe down the area and wait for it to leak again so maybe you can find the source of the leak"

Thanks, that is something I can do.