Can you tell me what I did wrong (FIPG woes)? (1 Viewer)

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OK, did up my oil pan Tuesday, and decided to do it "the right way" and go with FIPG and following the 3mm bead recommendation out of the FSM. Torqued it in (going round robin around the pan so it came in evenly) and let it set for about 18 hours. Next day I filled her up with oil, and almost immediately I noticed an oil weep on the driver side, about 2" in front of the oil level sensor. After much cursing I decided to drain the oil again, clean it all up, and try again.

The weird part is I noticed while scraping it out today (4 days post initial application) the FIPG seems "wet" particularly in the hollow areas of the pan...it's more viscous than it was when I applied it, and not really set at all. In the parts where it got smooshed down by the pan mating to the engine housing, it's dry, but only just...like it smears off as much as it flakes off with the plastic razor blade.

Anyway, is this me making some obvious mistake? Is it possible the FIPG I bought (off ebay, been sitting in my garage for about 8 months) somehow went bad? Was my bead just too small? Picture of the FIPG attempt here...
1620410937922.png


I'm now at the point where stuff is cleaned up and ready to be gasketed again. I'm no pro mechanic, but I have done this task (not on my 80) before with Permatex with no issues. I'm inclined to use the Permatex Ultra Black (and a thicker bead) this time around as that's worked for me in the past...but would love input from the braintrust as to what I might have done wrong.

Thanks!
 
maybe old, bad ebay paste?
try new stuff on something and see if it dries. That's a hassle to do it yet again...
 
There was talk on here in some thread of a gent using some Toyota FIPG that did something similar. IIRC the consensus was there is shelf life for it. Dunno. Just rings a bell on a thread on here.
 
I feel your pain. When I did mine I had to do it 3 times. The first time was to fix a leak on the front driver's side of the pan. When I reinstalled the pan I the last bolt broke on me so I had to start all over again. After drilling and tapping a bigger hole, I reinstalled the pan and a few days later I discovered it was leaking from the same spot. I dropped the pan again and noticed the FIPG wasn't completely dry. I picked up a new tube from the local stealership, cleaned the "old" FIPG off again, reapplied the FIPG, and remounted the pan. This time I noticed that the captured nut on the front left side wasn't holding the bolt. I tightened everything according to the FSM but for some reason the nut wasn't gripping the bolt. I installed a new factory bolt and that was a no-go also. I ended up going to the hardware store and getting a longer bolt with a nyloc nut. I haven't had any issues since.
 
This is the next project on my list and you’ve got me spooked! I’ve got FIPG from my valve cover job back in, I think, November. Worked like a charm, but similar to you, I’ve kept it in my garage. I’d hate to do this more than once...

Curious what you torqued down to? Heard stories of guys mistakenly reading in/lb for ft/lb
 
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Thanks all for the input. Just got it back into place with Permatex Ultra Black. The kids helped me finish cleaning up the pan.
A35FE162-9065-4628-A488-6F377A861060.jpeg

I torqued it all to 69 in/lbs last time, this time I did 69 in/lbs for the bolts and 78 in/lbs for the two nuts (but first gave it an hour of set time at fingertight as per the Permatex instructions.). Going to let it dry over the weekend and fill Sunday evening. (Have to move the truck by Monday 7am)
Fingers crossed.
 
Wouldn't be the first time we've heard of degraded sealant causing a problem (not setting up).
 
I buggared the actual eff out of my pan when I pried it off to redo it.
Hats off to you for apparently being quite skillful at it. 👍
 
Having done oil pans many times, I'd recommend ThreeBond 1207C. They're the OEM supplier for a lot of manufacturers, and I'm pretty sure the Toyota goo is just bought from them, but someone else could correct me on that. You want the 1207C red/brown one for oil pans, and 1207B black one for most other uses. I use this over Toyota branded FIPG every time.
 
I buggared the actual eff out of my pan when I pried it off to redo it.
Hats off to you for apparently being quite skillful at it. 👍
You want one of these:
A good putty knife with a curve and a point like this one is the best oil pan removal tool. Use a rubber mallet to tap it in at an edge, as flat as possible, then work the blade around the edge. Quick and easy, no prying or bending involved.
 
You want one of these:
A good putty knife with a curve and a point like this one is the best oil pan removal tool. Use a rubber mallet to tap it in at an edge, as flat as possible, then work the blade around the edge. Quick and easy, no prying or bending involved.
A 'reverse tanto' putty knife. Wuhl why didn't you say so?
Was about to reply that "I had one".
But no. I've nothing like that.
On the list now. 👍 And I don't care if I never do the oil pan again. lol
 
Sealed both upper and lower pans and a timing cover on Wednesday, put oil in it today.

Zero leaks. The FIPG I used had been around awhile, it wasn’t a fresh tube. You can tell when it starts to go bad by the consistency of the FIPG.

Your beads look a little small, you also should put a small amount of FIPG on the bolts. It must be extremly clean with zero oil residue on the mating surfaces. FIPG doesn’t like a dirty or oily mating surface.


Cheers
 
Sealed both upper and lower pans and a timing cover on Wednesday, put oil in it today.

Zero leaks. The FIPG I used had been around awhile, it wasn’t a fresh tube. You can tell when it starts to go bad by the consistency of the FIPG.

Your beads look a little small, you also should put a small amount of FIPG on the bolts. It must be extremly clean with zero oil residue on the mating surfaces. FIPG doesn’t like a dirty or oily mating surface.


Cheers
Ditto, i sealed mine last weekend and zero leaks. I used a tube of FIPG that had been lying around for at least 4 years. I also think (read " fecking sure" that the OP needs to squeeze the tube a little harder and thicken that bead.
 
. It must be extremly clean with zero oil residue on the mating surfaces. FIPG doesn’t like a dirty or oily mating surface.

that right there is key, ive seen pans that others have resealed in the shop and they were leaking by the next service because the mating surface wasnt cleaned well at all. clean the sub pan off, clean the upper pan, lay down a bead and dont be afraid to go around both sides of the bolt holes, get the bolts ready to go, clean the upper pan again, reinstall the sub pan and wait as long as you want to refill the oil.
 
How come the FIPG I use is red ? And it works every time!






devo
Post the part number if you have it. But I believe this is the stuff they use for water/coolant connection parts. I also think it's very expensive so get the black stuff! Lol.
 
Red is specifically for diffs and t-case. (Gear oil) Will work on anything though.
 
A 'reverse tanto' putty knife. Wuhl why didn't you say so?
Was about to reply that "I had one".
But no. I've nothing like that.
On the list now. 👍 And I don't care if I never do the oil pan again. lol
You don't have one!? 😲 Mine doubles a cheese knife "on trail".
 

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