How-to replace a rusty oil pan (1999 f-250 7.3)
 

Hello all,

First of all, I am new to this forum. The reason for me joining this forum is to spread some new found knowledge and experience on the topic of the notorious rusty oil pan. It seems that ford and international did not see the importance of a high quality oil pan, and therefore it tends to rust out in the northern states that see snow. I am one of the "lucky ones" that got the chance to replace mine.
Before the work was started, I cruised multiple forums in search of a how to on replacing the oil pan. I found several threads that were started, but no real luck on a quality walk through. I am now taking it upon myself to help out the rest of the world. I will try to describe each step taken to replace and repair the leaking oil pan.

First of all, this was my sisters 1999 F-250 superduty with the six speed transmission. It began as a small leak that my sister referred to as her "continuous oil change." Although this leak seemed bearable at first, it became a big problem very soon. My advice to anyone noticing a leak is to get it fixed as soon as you notice oil leaking. Hers ended up draining out completely after sitting for a night. Don't mess around with trying to JB weld the hole shut because it wont stick to the oily surface.

Since I am a stubborn person, I was reluctant to pull the motor to fix the oil pan. (This seemed like a lot of work that I did not want to do.) I instead elected to cut the cross member out from under the oil pan, replace the oil pan, and weld the cross member back in. This was successful except I was unable to get the mating surfaces clean enough. After welding the cross member back in, and buttoning everything up, the pan leaked once again.
I then tried to pop the oil pan down and reapply the RTV and try again. This also proved to be unsuccessful. So I decided to do the job right. The next steps are the correct and most effective way to solve this problem. Trust me and learn from my mistakes. This is much easier.

1. Look in your phone and call all of your buddies that owe you favors and have them come help. You will also want to make sure you have a full set of metric sockets. If you dont have any, have your buddies bring them.
2. Since you promised beer and pizza, you had better go out and get a few cases. (My buddies like their beer.)
3. Go to your local autozone and get 2 tubes of RTV, some paper towels, brake cleaner,about 3 gallon jugs of unmixed coolant, 15 quarts of oil, and an oil filter. (You may also need a small amount of transmission fluid)
4. Pull the truck into your shop if it runs. If not, hopefully your friends are their to push it. After this you should all sit back and enjoy a beer since its a big truck. (I was fortunate to have a winch, but we drank anyways.)
5. To prevent headaches, and since you will have to do it sometime anyways, remove the hood of the truck. This is a 2 person job. Before loosening the bolts, outline the brackets with a sharpie. This will help you align the hood later.
6. Begin by draining the remaining oil from the oil pan and remove the oil filter. Shove a rag in the filter hole to prevent getting oil all over the shop floor and your face later.
7. Remove the turbo and y-pipe infront of the turbo. You will need this off for clearance when lifting the motor.
8. After realizing that the V-band clamps are a PITA to get off, use a small hammer and tap on them to loosen them up. They will pop off due to the vibration.
9. After you have severe hand cramps due to the clamps, sit back and have a beer and have your buddy put the turbo in a safe place.
10. Offer your buddy a beer.
11. Remove the pedestal that the turbo sits on. Be sure not to lose any of the O-rings that are in it. Also, cover the holes that are now visible along with the intake holes that the y-pipe were connected to.
12. Loosen the intercooler piping from the intercooler and remove them. This is a horrible game of tetris, but they can be wiggled out.
13. Remove both of the batteries.
14. Remove the piping coming out of the turbo to the airbox. Also remove the air/battery box in order to make more room.
15. Remove the bumper and grill from the truck. This will give you a place to stand, and it makes removing the engine a lot easier.
16. Sit back and look at how different your truck is looking.
17. Drink a beer because it is now looking like a bigger project than you originally thought.
18. Drain the coolant from the radiator from the petcock on the bottom drivers side of the radiator. This may be tricky if the POS plastic bolt gets stuck. I drained my coolant into a clean five gallon bucket. I reused mine.
19. Disconnect the transmission lines from the bottom of the radiator, and plug up the lines. I tied rags around the ends of the free lines.
20. Drink a beer to calm your nerves following the transmission fluid getting in your eye.
21. Get your five gallon bucket ready again, since there is still fluid in the hoses.
22. Remove hoses on the bottom of the radiator, and attempt to catch all of the fluid that begins to flow out of them.
23. Spend 10 minutes attempting to locate the wrenches you threw following the shower of fluid. (The fluid missed the bucket and hit you in the face instead.)
24. Unbolt the resevoir (3-8mm bolts), radiator (5-8mm bolts on top) and fan shroud (2-8mm bolts on top).
25. Push the fan shroud back over the fan and remove the radiator. Place the radiator in a safe place far away from where you are working.
26. Unbolt the intercooler (2-10mm bolts on top) remove from the engine compartment.
27. Unbolt the two L-brackets that hold the A/C condensor from the removable crossmember.
28. Unbolt the hood latch (2-8mm bolts) and swing out of the way.
29. Unbolt the removable crossmember. Each side will have 4-13mm bolts and 2-8mm bolts. There will also be 2 angular supports that need removed (2-8mm bolts). Wiggle the crossmember up and out. (If your truck is anything like the one I was working on, you will probably need a pry bar and a small hammer.)
30. Swing the evaporator out of the way. Be careful not to bump into it or bend the pipes. As soon as the pipes are bent, they are ruined. I chose to swing the evaporator out of the way rather than discharging and disconnecting.
31. Disconnect the grounds from the motor. There will be 2 in the front of the motor (one on each side) and on on the passenger side rear.
32. Disconnect the fuel lines using a 3/8" quick disconnect tool. Many people say these are a PITA, but I found a second set of connections in the rear of the motor. These connections came apart very easily.
33. Remove the serpentine belt from the motor and set it aside.
34. Remove the A/C compressor from the top of the motor and set it aside. (4-10mm bolts)
35. Remove the alternator from the top of the motor. (3-13mm bolts)
36. Remove alternator bracket from the front of the motor. (4-13mm bolts) Leave the power steering pump attached to the bracket and tie the whole thing out of the way with a piece of wire.
37. Sit down and enjoy a beer or two before the heavy lifting begins.
38. Slide under the truck and remove the starter. (3 bolts) Many say not to leave it hang, but I just set it on top of the front leaf spring.
39. Remove the dust shield from the bellhousing and slide it somewhere out of the way. (3-10mm bolts)
40. Loosen the transmission mounting nuts. (2 nuts)
41. Remove the engine mounting nuts. (2 nuts per side)
42. Have your friend slide a floor jack with a piece of wood under the truck. Snug the jack under the transmission in order to support it.
43. Remove the transmission/engine bellhousing bolts. It is easiest to remove the 4 bottom ones from underneath the truck and the top 2 while standing over the engine.
44. After crawling out from under the truck you should drink a beer while all of the rust works its way out of your eyes.
45. There will be a black plastic piece that travels along the cowl of the truck. It is held in by black plastic push in fasteners. It is best to remove the fasteners and push it out of the way.
46. Remove the brake line cooler bolted to the bottom crossmember. (2-8mm bolts) You may not see the immediate reason for this, but you will thank me later
47. Obtain a short chain that you can run between the 2 lift hooks on the engine. Make sure the chain is as tight as it can be because you will have clearance issues if you dont.
48. With a cherry picker, hook onto the chain that you just put on the engine. Make sure the hoist is set at the correct capacity for lifting this load. The engine is 1000lbs alone.
49. When you first lift the motor off of the mounts, the lifting hooks will bend. You shouldnt be alarmed as this will not cause any problems. Although, you should let down on the hoist and tighten up the chains.
50. It is now safe to pick up the motor.
51. Once the motor is up off of the motor mounts, snug the jack supporting the transmission up again.
52. The next step is tricky and takes patience, but you must pull the motor forward and lift up at the same time. The oil pan tends to get hung up on the large crossmember. The motor will come out though.
53. Now that the motor has been moved up and forward, check all around the motor for anything else that is connected to it.
54. Pull the engine forward and out of the truck.
55. Drink a few beers for celebration, and also because you will need them for confidence during the next step.
56. With the engine hanging from the hoist, remove the oil pan. (a lot of 10mm bolts)
57. Using a gasket scraper and a hammer, break the seal between the oil pan and the block.
58. Spray the inside of the engine out with brake clean or starting fluid to speed up the drip process.
59. Drink the rest of the case with your buddies and go to bed. Ford suggests that you leave the engine hang for 24 hours to allow it to drip out. This step will make a mess of your shop floor, but there is no way around it.
60. Wake up and make yourself some breakfast. Hopefully you dont have a hangover from your celebration the night before.
61. Use a gasket scraper and a wire brush and remove ALL of the old seal from the bottom of the engine block.
62. Clean out your new oil pan with brake clean and paper towels. Do not use a cloth rag because the remains of the cloth can clog your oil filter. Then you will have a lot bigger problems.
63. Apply the RTV to the oil pan in heavy quantities. You dont want to be stingy on the amount you apply. The more the better. I made that mistake once before. Be sure to get a lot of RTV on any part of the pan that bends.
64. Run a clean rag with brake clean on it over the mating surface of the engine block immediately before sticking the oil pan to it.
65. Stick the oil pan to the engine. You have one shot at this. Do not attempt to pull the pan off and restick it. Have a buddy help you with this if possible.
66. Tighten all of the oil pan bolts.
67. Call all of your friends back over and maybe even have them bring an extra floor jack.
68. You have to drop the engine back in and button everything back up.
69. Using an extension and a 18" breaker bar, turn the crank bolt to line up the input shaft and clutch.
70. After the shaft is engaged, push the motor back onto the motor mounts and lower it. It should slide back into place.
71. Good luck and have fun. I hope I remembered everything.

Welcome to FTE...Sorry your first and second attempt failed.That was what I have read in recent posts.

Most excellent! I hope I NEVER have to do this. Welcome to the site and thanks for your 1st contribution, it's a doozy.

Great write up, I also hope I never have to do it...:-drink

Step #67 should include them bringing another case of beer.... :)

Pop

That was a fantastic first post!!!

Welcome to FTE!
Thanks for the great writeup.

Excellent write up -Like said -Hope I dont have to do this but if I do Be using this for reference, and a lot of beer- Say that reminds me, is it beer thirty yet?

Wow! Maybe you should consider moving to Alaska with that pioneer spirit. I'm not so sure that the consumption was quite equal to the exertion tho... That is one job I hope I never have to face!

The pulling of the motor took about 5 hours. After replacing the oil pan, I spent about 10 hours just trying to get the engine back in. I have taken about 3 more hours putting everything back on. A heck of a project.

Great write up!
Sounds like a huge pain in the arse though.....I also dont think you had enough beer.

Wellcome to FTE. Excellent write up. Im hoping I will never have to do this. Living in Arkansas does have its advantages.

Welcome to FTE. Great write up. As you get older, you'll begin to understand the importance of safety glasses. You can get them cheap and it's always a good idea to wear them when crawling under the truck.

Ford / International sells a tube of gray RTV that is meant for the oil pan and seems much better than the stuff you get at the parts store.

Did you do any more welding on the previously cut crossmember when the engine was out, or did you get that taken care of earlier?

I ended up grabbing a pair of safety glasses after the first piece of debris fell in my eye. I just added that part for comical relief. I used the high temp RTV from the parts store because I figured that, just like everything else from ford, their RTV would be extremely overpriced. My biggest problem was getting the surfaces spotless. It was hard to get a wire brush and gasket scraper in every nook and cranny. Also, the welding was done by my father. I have faith in his work since he was a boilermaker for 40+ years. If there is anything that man knows, it is metal working. He was able to get full penetration 100% of the way around the cross member. Looking back, cutting the cross member did not save any time and it proved to be a royal PITA. Thank you for your appreciation. I figured that more than one person would like to have a detailed how-to on the repair. I also wanted to express my mistakes so that anyone else attempting this task would not waste their time as I did.

The only thing you could have done to make this easier is

1) invest in some cardboard to catch all the drips that are impossible to catch, and
2) invest in an engine stand that can roll the engine upside down so there are no oil drips when applying the RTV and pan.

Unfortunately we all become a little older and less invincible as time goes by, so safety glasses are always a good thing to recommend. The younger guys won't listen at first, but eventually they become older and start repeating the same stuff as the rest of us.