Howdy, I recently purchased a big old 87 F-350 dually with the 460 V8 and about 170,000 miles. After a trip to the mechanic and a carb rebuild, it runs and drives well. I bought the truck to pull a 10,000 pound boat, which it did just fine (except for some terrible gas mileage, but I expected that).

The truck has lots of little problems (like the windows don't go down) but the big one is an oil leak that appears to be coming from the pan. It starts out as a pretty steady stream off the front edge up near the oil filter, then tapers off to just a small drip once the truck is warm.

Our plan is to move the boat 1500 miles this fall. I'm trying to assess if this is the truck to do it. I have about $4,000 into it so far. Fixing the oil pan looks like a major job. Do I just let it drip? Fix it? Or cut bait and look for a different tow rig?

Thanks for any advice the group can offer.

 

I wouldn't just let it continue to leak.

If you don't want to lift your engine and unbolt the tranny to replace it, then at least determine where the leak is and use some JB weld or something to plug it up.

 

You can replace the gasket without pulling the motor but takes awhile. I would at least try and slow it down tho.

 

If it's leaking that bad, it needs to be fixed. You have the right truck to do the job...you just need to fix it. Sure, it's a big job...but take a weekend and just do it. I'm bad about doing that...procrastinating forever over a job and then when I just knuckle down and do it, it usually isn't all that bad. That truck seems like it just needs some TLC....save her man...save her.

 

My 90 F250 w/5.8 had a very large oil leak (1 qt a day+) on the right side pan gasket ...behind the motor mount (P.I.T.A.) I didn't have a lot of shop stuff or tools to work with ...the repair had very large Mickey Mouse ears on it when done. I got under it and loosened all the right side pan bolts and removed the mount. The PO installed a pan gasket and missed 3 holes (bolts went behind gasket). I forced the pan down and removed the 3 missed bolts. Cleaned everything with brake clean, then stuffed the gasket back in place at the same time forcing in some black silicone (GM style) gasket maker from Autozone. With a putty knife or finger i did my best to overload it. reassembled it and let it sit overnight ... that was Christmas weekend 2009 ... still NO LEAKS after about 20,000 mi. (still praying too ). Later this year that 5.8 will get rebuilt and I'll check out my job! Good luck

 

Im not gonna say any thing, Mines been leaking for over a year.

 

Snug up the pan bolts using a 1/4" drive so as not to over torque. It will either fix it or not. It doesn't cost anything so it is worth a try.

 

Oil pan leak - fix it or forget it?

something about me, I hate leaks of any kind...especially an oil mark in the driveway..The leaks taunt me until I win...

Over the years my 92 F150 XLT SC long bed 302 (oh I mean 5.0l) developed 2 different oil pan leaks...

1) Thru wall, yea that one amazed me.. a rust bubble formed on the side of the oil pan and oil was seeping thru the wall, slow but left a spot in the drive. Truck was only 7 years old, no body rust... but a rust on the oil pan???? I learned this was common for those years....friends told me it cost $300+ to get the pan replaced... to totally pull and replace the pan the engine has to come up a bit....

So I drained the oil, sanded it down to rid the rust bubble, now I had a small hole, primed it all then epoxied it over, painted the pan with rustoleum, I did an "extra oil change" to convince my self there was no debris inside, before I restarted the engine.... it lasted for at least the 10 more years I had the 92 (traded on my current 09)

2) several years later (@ about 150K miles) started leaking @ the back of the oil pan gasket, I thought this was the rear main, however I investigated futher and noticed the oil pan gasket was "pushing itself out all over". Found the PCV line collapsed (likely the reason the gasket was "blowwing out"??? and replaced it) I bought a new oil pan gasket and undid all the oil pan bolts, the pan dropped about 1/2" got the old gasket out and installed the new one, gotta admit getting the new one around the oil pump pickup was a PITA... tip => remove the dipstick, if you don't you'll have a real hard time getting around it too.

After this the 92 never leaked a molecule of oil again.:


Good luck with whatever you decide...

 

Thanks for the replies on this. Im glad to know this truck is worth saving. Turned out it was the oil filter housing that was leaking. Had the shop fix it (we've got a foot of snow on the ground here). Ran about 300 bucks. Of course it needed ball joints too, so it was a little more painful than that on the wallet.

Now, how do I get the windows to go down...

 

Theres 2 ways to do this depending on your model.

1.) Press the downward/rearward facing arrow on the black switch panel on your armrest.

2.) If no button, locate a crank handle on the door panel and turn it clockwise/counterclockwise until the desired window level is reached.

Ok, but seriously you'll need to give us more to go on to better help on the window situation. Do any of them work? If none of them work on both sides, then I'd check for fuses.

It could be pump, wires, or switches if none of the above. Give us more info and we'll set you straight.

 

i have a gas powerd f350 5 speed has oil leak cant find it all i know is there is oil all over bell housing cover . neeeeed help bad

also when i fill both tanks the front one while truck is off will leak gas if i take cap off it poors out fill hole.
PLEASE HELP ME

 

Greetins IRISHPAPA;

To solve it you gotta find it, my post (above) discussed very small oil leaks I found via investigation, based on your symptom (all over the bell housing)I believe your leak may from above, I had a 76 Granada with a 250 straight 6, after an over heating event with 150k she developed a small leak at the back of the head (intake manif and head are all one piece on this engine) to fix I had to replace the head gasket, a good afternoons work.

I also had a used 85 Econoline van, bell housing was covered in old oil, the undercarriage was oily. the source... the seal at the back of the intake manifold, the "right" way to fix it is to remove the intake manifold, replace the gaskets and run a 3/8" bead of "permatex" along the back (center) edge of the intake mainifold...

What I did...since it was an Econoline (therefore => almost no room to work on with the engine in place) I was reluctant to tackle the remove the manifold gig (alot of work to potentially fix an oil leak)....

I cleaned the oil from the rear of the block to intake manifild area, ran a 3/4" bead of permatex along the seam between the block and intake manifold. used my finger to push the Permatex in "the gap". for the 8 years I owned the Econoline no oil leak...

GOOD LUCK...

 

If the pan itself is leaking then a word of advice is if you try to do it cheap and use something like jb weld ive been there and tried that and found out it does not work. I bought a pan and gasket and was going to try to save myself the money and do it myself and after getting frustrated with trying to remove the pan I talked to a guy at work who recomended something like a liquid metal so when I went to the auto parts store they gave me jb weld and told me to pull the pan and do both inside and outside of the pan after cleaning it really well. I bought it and tried it but didnt pull the pan figuring if im pulling the pan I might as well put my new pan and gasket on anyway. I didnt have any luck with the jb weld on one side so if its the pan i would just replace it

 

I can tell ya from experience.... FIX IT!!!

My F150 had a small leak never anything big, but always there.... well long story short I went to pick up a car for my son about 400miles away... trip out went through about 2qts.. Well about 60 miles into the return trip I start up a steep hill and I notice that I'm starting to trail smoke.... The pan gasket failed about half way up that hill. It used 18qts(or should say undercoating my truck/trailer and anyone within 15 ft of my truck) getting the final 300miles... Oil is MUCH cheaper than a new motor and another lesson learned that if you put off maintenance it will bite you.