Hello again. I'm halfway through my oilpan seal replacement for the second
time in three months. The first time around, I repaired a stripped out
thread with a heli-coil (thanks Joe!) and reattached the pan with a new
gasket, but no goop, since the workshop manual didn't specify any. Big
mistake. I ended up with a worse oil leak than I started out with and
finally allowed enough time to pass to forget what a pain in the @ss this
job is before starting again. After much effort, the oil pan is off (that
one bolt above the frame that doesn't allow enough clearance for even my
angle drive is a $%#&!). Conked myself above the eye with my socket wrench
when I lost my grip and in bounced off my head. Mrs. Jones draws blood!!
I've thoroughly cleaned up the block where the pan fits on and noticed that
there is a single loop of the helicoil that is protruding from the hole
where I made my repair. I must not have screwed it in far enough. I'm not
sure if this is a problem or not -- the coil loop presses more or less flush
against the block when I press on it, but I'm wondering if there's any way I
can still shove it up there further? Or should I just grind off the excess
(I'd rather not attempt that one). Or should I just leave it alone and
apply a good bead of Permatex 2 around everything and just forget it?
I'll go clean up the oil pan, place a bead around it and lay the gasket on.
Hopefully by the time I'm done with that, there will be a suggestion or two.
Thanks!!
Jeff (not bloody cheek; bloody eyebrow!) McNeal
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