Quick! Before the stores close - cracked oilpan!!

Was "fortunate" to notice dripping oil as I walked to the car at the end of the day today. Checked the dipstick, and it was at the bottom of the hash marks. Uh-oh.

Had little choice but to carry on with picking up my son at daycare and getting home. Got the OEM plastic skidplate off, and found this:





My wife is accepting responsibility ("oh... that must have been me... I meant to tell you about this pothole I hit..."). And only two days after an oil change with (expensive) Mobil Delvac ESP!

Life happens.

What are my short term options... can JB Weld hold the crack for a couple of days while I get a new pan (and necessary tools)?

HELP appreciated!

i think its going to need to be pretty clean and dry (definitely oil-free) for the JB weld to hold

I've drained the oil, and I'll do the best I can to clean it up.

I'll probably take a ball peen hammer and try to level out the crack a bit, clean with a degreaser, roughen it up, apply the patch, let it cure overnight before seeing if it will hold oil in the morning. I will replace the pan ASAP, of course, but if this can hold it until I get one, fantastic.

I've got some of this, so we'll see how it does. I've got some JB Weld as well, but this Permatex stuff seems more appropriate for the scenario.

I'd clean it up with acetone to degrease it, but I wouldn't peen it at all. Cast aluminum, pretty brittle. It is already cracked. Peening it will only make it worse. Rough it up around the crack with some sandpaper.

And acetone will dry out really fast so you'll be OK to glue it in short order. Just don't use nail polish remover. It is mostly acetone, but some of the bottlers of that stuff put oil in with the acetone.

Good luck!

FITZ!!!! wow that sucks, i still miss your other TDI!!! what's up with not having a real skid plate!!!!

I see a crack up and right of the drain plug too on the back side, and the bottom of the pan looks deformed. I suggest a new pan before you have a catastrophic failure of it.

Try to find a product called Marine Tex, we've used it on some engine blocks that had cracked and it worked fine. Just grind the area a little , clean and apply. Another good product is Z spar.

http://www.marinetex.com/



http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/16184?&cid=chanintel&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=16184

Duct tape a vacuum cleaner nozzle to the oil fill hole in the cam cover. Let the vac suck on the engine while you clean the crack and put on the glue. The vac will keep the residual oil from weeping out and spoiling the bond. Just leave the vac running until the glue has set. Rough up site with maybe 50 grit sandpaper, and clean with acetone. Epoxy like marinetex has been used for these, and actually held well. There may be better flavors of glue to use, no expert on glue.

Wow... thanks for the replies... I missed all your good advice while I was out in the garage!

I did take a hammer too it, and that seems to have worked well. After peening it a bit, it stopped weeping. Good way to go deaf, though... yeesh!

Cleaned it with acetone, roughed it up with some heavy sand paper, and put on a coat of the Permatex stuff. Dries pretty quick... maybe 30 secs to 1 minute of working time before it's tacky. Instructions give cure time at 24 hours, but we're going to see how it does after 12, when I need to leave in the morning!

Dave... in hindsight, I preferred the red too! OEM skidplate was on the list for the fall, but it just got bumped up. (And with the wife feeling guilty, I might spring for a few more things!)

Glen... Good eye, but (thankfully) that's not a crack, just some oil on the seam of the drain plug insert (see first pic below). It is a pretty good dent, however.

Thanks for the tips on the marine epoxy; I went with what I had on hand, and I think it will be OK. I'm only looking for a few days worth of protection, and it's not catastrophic if it fails: despite a constant weeping, I was able to drain almost 3L this evening, and the crack has been there since Saturday morning (and about ~150kms). Of course, judging by the puddle in my garage, it's amazing how much mess a "little" oil can make! I'll check it every time I need to drive, and top up if necessary until I get the new pan.

Hammered



Cleaned and roughed


Patched

You need to install an aluminum skid plate, too.

Looks like that ought to hold for a few days until you can replace the pan. I never noticed that stuuf on the rack, I might get a tube just to have it hand for a situation like yours.

Yep, I'm impressed. I tidied it up this morning with some sand paper, put in a couple of litres of oil and left it for an hour - no drips or signs of weeping, so I topped it up and went on my way. Car is at the alignment shop right now, in fact.

I'm fortunate to have just a small, manageable fracture... I've certainly seen worse...


Metalnerd wobble bit and OE sealant are en route from Roseland (thanks Brian!), and I've got a line on a new pan locally, that I'll pick up tomorrow. Should be able to get it buttoned up on the weekend.

...and since I'll be under the car, it's a good time to do the transmission fluid, and install the 034 Motorsport pendulum mount.

Mass. Wine Guy said:

You need to install an aluminum skid plate, too.

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+1

Why would you go with another OEM skidplate? That's what failed to protect your oil pan in the first place.

Two words fory you... PAN ZER.

let us know how the patch fared after the motor was run up to temp a few times. thanks.

bogievw said:

Why would you go with another OEM skidplate? That's what failed to protect your oil pan in the first place.

Two words fory you... PAN ZER.

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I'd probably go with the OEM steel skidplate.



I should probably stop calling the OEM plastic POS a skidplate... belly pan is better.

tditom said:

let us know how the patch fared after the motor was run up to temp a few times. thanks.

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Will do. I thought I remembered reading on the packaging that the cured product was stable to 600^F, but I can't find confirmation on the Permatex web site. I'd be more concerned about vibration/resonance. It's just a surface patch, with minimal product actually getting into the crack, so any blow would likely cause it to split open.

It probably doesn't matter if you install the steel plate or one of the aluminum ones, except for a bit more weight. I got my skid plate from the guy in Vancouver, Canada. Excellent product, but so are the others.

yea, I got an aluminum one due to future rust issues

fitzski said:

tditom said:

let us know how the patch fared after the motor was run up to temp a few times. thanks.

Click to expand...

Will do. I thought I remembered reading on the packaging that the cured product was stable to 600^F, but I can't find confirmation on the Permatex web site. I'd be more concerned about vibration/resonance. It's just a surface patch, with minimal product actually getting into the crack, so any blow would likely cause it to split open.

Click to expand...

Needed to clarify this... I checked the packaging on the Permatex Liquid Metal Filler... there is no temperature specification. In fact, all it says is "Not intended for high temperature applications" (or words to that effect). It's not quantified anywhere. The packaging does specifically mention the product as a solution for "oil pans", so not sure what "high temperature" might mean (brakes? exhaust?).

The 600^F that I saw was on the JB Weld packaging.

After 2+ days, the patch still looks perfect - no discoloration or signs of degradation.

fitzski said:

not sure what "high temperature" might mean (brakes? exhaust?).

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Yep, I bet they are talking to the people trying to fix a cracked exhaust manifold with the stuff...

Mass. Wine Guy said:

It probably doesn't matter if you install the steel plate or one of the aluminum ones, except for a bit more weight. I got my skid plate from the guy in Vancouver, Canada. Excellent product, but so are the others.

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diesel-dave said:

yea, I got an aluminum one due to future rust issues

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Great points, re: weight and rust... I'll take that into consideration!

Just got my replacement oil pan... well, two, actually. One brand new stock non-sensor pan, and another installed-but-never-run pan with the sensor hole and sensor...

I'll do the swap to sensor pan on the weekend. The patch is still holding up well.

The sensor is only good to have if you have an instrument cluster that supports it. The stock cluster on a car originally without sensor won't even recognize the sensor if you wire it up.

I patched a coolant leak from on a Detroit Series 50 diesel where the coolant does a 90 degree bend in the block. It wore away the metal engine block, two layers of JB weld and it fixed it. I was hoping for a couple years, it has been over 4 years now and is still dry. I found the top layer a year ago on the floor, I was worried again but still going strong.
210 degrees, 14lbs of pressure, caustic coolant, gave me a new respect for JB weld.

MOGolf said:

The sensor is only good to have if you have an instrument cluster that supports it. The stock cluster on a car originally without sensor won't even recognize the sensor if you wire it up.

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Yup.

Crisis = Opportunity