Replace Eng. Oil Pan Gskt, 4.2L
 

Replaced the gskt. with 125K miles on my 2003 XK8 last night. Drained oil and removed the 18 (8mm) head bolts, plus removed the (2) X-Brace bolts at rear behind front wheels to allow the pan to drop some. Dropped the pan and maneuvered it out w/o a mess. Cleaned the pan (nothing) and removed the old gskt. Sprayed brake clean in the grove to be sure it was clean and re-installed. Torqued the bolts in sequence to 11 NM, 9 Ft. Lbs. or 105 inch lbs. Refilled with oil and appears all is well.

Well done. Where was your oil pan gasket leaking? Was it due to gasket age and brittleness, or had you tightened up your pan bolts recently and perhaps cracked the seal while doing so?

The gasket had seeped since I purchased the car. A drop on floor maybe once a week. The gasket (seal) was soft & pliable but OLD. It had shrunk and allowed a little to slip past. The new seal had a better edge when I placed it on the block cavity. Just dropping the rear portion of the X-Brace gave adequate room to R&I pan.

Another thing to check while you are in the general area is the hoses from the engine to the oil cooler (if you have one). The pressure side is apparently subject to leaks and occasional catastrophic failure. Straightforward to change, somewhat inexpensive, and good maintenance. Thanks for sharing.

I don't know about that "relatively inexpensive" thing. At around $100 per hose (4), it's a pretty good chunk of change unless you're just replacing one or two bad players. I've replaced one, have another to get to, but I'd love to replace them all just from a preventative standpoint.

I was getting that DROP or two a week under the car of oil but since we drive it more now it has went away. Chalk it up for now to the old saying, THESE CARS NEED DRIVEN to hold off repairs!!?!?!!?!?!?!?

Has anyone removed the leaking hose and had the flex section replaced at a hydraulic hose shop with stainless steel braided hose. The Ag and Construction use this method on their expensive hoses. The shop removes the ends and replaces the hose and adds new crimps. I had two -1/2" ID oil hoses fabbed for my 5.0 Ford powered MGB about 18" long for $20 to $25 each incl ends.

I totally agree, BRG! People do give me the hairy eyeball when they hear of all the work I put into the car, but at almost 190K miles much of the effort is discretionary and preventative. I do believe that my downtime vs. miles driven ratio it better than that for someone who's car sits for weeks/month between drives. I enjoy my car almost every day.


Disclaimer: Of course she's in the garage right now for Valley Hose replacement (not for the faint-of-heart on a S/C engine!).

Exactly, I only changed the driver/engine side. After reading about catastrophic failures of the older revision, basically leaving folks stranded on the side of the road with no oil in the engine, I figured this one hose was money well spent, 13 year old car and all that. I was going for minimum downtime, and wanted the part in hand.

If I was to replace all 4, I would look into pricing this as a repair through a hydraulics shop. Has to be way less than the full asking price of the original parts. Probably needs to leave the car in the garage for a couple of days, though.