After 3 weeks of driving I really needed to get the oil leaks fixed. It was making a mess of our driveway, and my wife was getting annoyed. So I parked her in the garage, jacked her up, and went at it. Even though I had cleaned the underside, it was already a mess of oil again. I could tell it was leaking from at least
- The oil pan
- The rear diff cover
- The front diff cover
- And probably the t-case/e-brake
My plan was to take care of the oil pan first, drive it some more and see if I could pin down where else it was leaking. I had ordered a new gasket from SOR and I figured it would take me a few hours...
After pulling the front wheels (not strictly necessary, but I knew it would give me more light) I noted my knuckles were seeping a bit, particularly on the left side. No biggie, but noted for future reference...
I also discovered that to take the oil pan off I had to take the clutch cover off. So that's what a clutch looks like.
Note to noobs draining oil: Buy a large oil catcher and several 5 gallon plastic pails with lids (Home Depot) and lots and lots of paper shop towels. You will spill oil and cleaning it up with rags will not endear you to your spouse.
I then removed all of the bolts holding the pan in place and pulled on it, kinda expecting it to just drop down. No joy. It was not coming off easily.
After
consulting with Mud (thank you Poser) I went at the gasket hard with a broad flat screwdriver and crowbar. I was initially careful about not bending the pan, but then I realized I was going to dump the pan anyway and replace it given the general feeling that the spot welds for the skid plate give up over time. I had no way of knowing whether my pan was really leaking through these welds, but better safe than sorry...
Once I got penetration in between the gasket and the pan, I was able to wedge the pan free and it came out nicely.
Below you can see the cork gasket. It's pretty obvious where oil was seeping under it and where it wasn't.
What isn't obvious from this picture is how stuck the gasket was to the block...