Oil pan bolt tightening sequence?

[Geezer Cruzzer]

My Haynes book tells me to torque the pan bolts to 7lb ft but says nothing about any sequence in tightening the bolts. Logic tells me there should be.

 

[1911]

My Haynes book tells me to torque the pan bolts to 7lb ft but says nothing about any sequence in tightening the bolts. Logic tells me there should be.

The Toyota spec (from later 3F factory service manual) is like 93 inch-lbs. if I remember correctly, , which is pretty close to what your haynes manual is telling you. Do yourself a favor and buy an inch-lbs. torque wrench; not many foot-lbs. torque wrenches are going to be accurate that close to the bottom of the scale.

The torque spec is really low, because the cork gasket will squeeze out if you over-tighten it. At that low of torque, the tightening order is not going to matter much, but if it makes you feel better then by all means use a criss-cross pattern. The main thing is put all four corners on first so that the weight of the oil pan hanging on one side does not deform the flatness of the flange. For that matter, most flanges get bent taking them off, so check for flatness on a level surface and adjust with a dolly or large drift before reinstalling with the new gasket.

 

[Geezer Cruzzer]

Thanks!