Old Bessie's Build Thread (1 Viewer)

[UGA2018]

It's finished! I got my oil pan gasket replaced, everything back together and the truck is running!

Whenever I do a job like this on the 60 I hope to capture some key learnings. My hope is that there is some guy that comes along behind me and finds it helpful. I have learned a ton from all of those on MUD and so I hope others can pick up a few things too.

So here we go...

1. All of my major projects on the truck have been from the top until this one. I've decided that I much prefer to work from the top of the truck than the bottom! haha. I have a feeling I'm not alone in that. About half way through the project I decided to borrow a buddy's jack stands to give myself a little more room. I recommend getting your truck up as much as possible to give yourself the room you'll need to move around.

2. Getting the bolts out of the oil pan is easy. Getting the oil pan off of the bottom of the block takes some work. I used the bottle jack method where you position the bottle jack against the frame with a small piece of 2X4 against the oil pan. Slowly crank it and put pressure on the oil pan. It didn't give the first time so moved it to another location on the oil pan and repeated the same task. Then I moved to other side of the oil pan and did it again. After probably 4 times it eventually popped off.

3. The lip of oil pan had the gasket on it caked on pretty good. You can see it in some of the pics I posted. I used a drill with a wire brush drill bit to get the old gasket off. I thought that a putty knife would be enough but this stuff is on there good! I then wet sanded the lip to get any fine pieces that I missed.

4. Now to the block where the oil pan was located. As I said, it is tight under there! It was tough to use the wire brush drill bit because it was so tight but where I could I did. It didn't work in the arch sections and other areas so I used a flathead with a mallet to pry the old gasket off. That took a lot of slow patient work but it eventually came off.

5. Now to put the gasket on. I had the one piece gasket that I got from CruiserCorps. I lined it up on the oil pan and merged a couple of methods that I read on MUD. I tied loops through the gasket and the oil pan to hold it in place. I then put black RTV between the gasket and the oil pan going on the outside of the bolt holes. I put some bolts in the holes to hold it in place. The gasket in the arch was about impossible to get to stay in place and the two ends beside the arch kept pulling up. I realized that the RTV would not dry right without the gasket on it so I decided to put it on the truck as is.

6. Getting that gasket to line up correctly on the arch ends was a challenge but the loops that I tied helped a ton. I pulled on those loops to align the gasket hole with the hole on the oil pan and then I could work the bolt through it. The arch by the front took me about an hour but again with patience I was able to get it on there.

7. I torqued it down to spec, put the clutch cover plate back on and filled her up with oil.

She seems to be holding oil alright now but I'll keep an eye on her over the next several days.

Now to drive her for a bit before I start my next project!

 

[UGA2018]

Here's an update on Old Bessie. I would love the advice of all of MUD that is willing to chime in.

1. After replacing the oil pan gasket I retorqued it as @CaptClose suggested. I did notice a little leaking around the arches and that the bolts were more lose than they should be. I haven't seen any more oil other than maybe a small drop. I think it is rear main seal but it doesn't seem to be dropping a lot.

2. The truck seems to burning oil like crazy. Or it is going somewhere where it isn't obvious. It is smoking more than before I did the oil pan gasket replacement. I can't believe it is related but the timing is interesting. At first I thought it could have been the RTV that I used but I've driven it about 250 miles and that shouldn't be a problem at this point.

3. I need to add about 1-2 quarts every 180 miles or so. That's a lot!

4. The smoke goes from mostly white at times to mostly blue/gray other times. It use to just smoke at start up so I figured that was because of the choke and warming up. Now it smokes most but not all of the time.

5. I notice the smoke the most when I'm idling even after the engine is warm.

6. I haven't adjusted the carb so I don't think it is related to that. I do get some backfires every once in a while since I desmoged. I think that is because I haven't recurved my dizzy but I'm throwing it out there in case it could be related.

7. Vacuum has been solid since the desmog and manifold resurfacing.

I think that is all of the background info. I'm thinking I should start with another compression test and maybe a leak down test. I have read about valve seals going bad and wondering if I need to pull the head to have those replaced.

Am I on the right track here? Any other places you would check out. I am off work the next few days so I am going to try to jump into this and figure it out.

Thanks MUD!

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Eating oil and white smoke. Boy, none of that sounds promising.

 

[UGA2018]

Eating oil and white smoke. Boy, none of that sounds promising.

I know!

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Silly to ask but you did put the correct number of quarts back in after doing the pan right? 8...
Blue gray is oil burn off moreso than coolant/head I believe.
Crap.
Def do a compression test and report back what you find. Look at your plugs too. Share a pix of them soon after pulling. Are they new?

 

[UGA2018]

Silly to ask but you did put the correct number of quarts back in after doing the pan right? 8...
Blue gray is oil burn off moreso than coolant/head I believe.
Crap.
Def do a compression test and report back what you find. Look at your plugs too. Share a pix of them soon after pulling. Are they new?

Yes definitely 8 qts of oil put back in. And more added due to the burning/MIA oil. The oil did not look milky when I drained it for the oil pan gasket so I don't think there is coolant in there.

Will do on the compression test and pic of the plugs. Thanks!

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Good luck!

 

[UGA2018]

Here's a bit more info. I checked the oil level this morning after warming the engine up. I drove it about 180 miles yesterday and it was full of oil before I started. You can see it is really low now after just 180 miles. I added two quarts to fill it up.

I checked underneath again and I do have a leak. The good news it is not from the oil pan gasket. It is from the oil pan plug. It is was leaking before so I replaced the gasket around the plug. That hasn't done the trick so I will probably get a new plug.

Regardless I don't think I'm losing all of this oil there.

 

[UGA2018]

You can see how it is smoking here. This is at idle after warm up. No choke.

 

[UGA2018]

Just for grins I did another vacuum test. It's perfect ! The needle doesn't move a bit!

 

[FJACS]

Where is the vacuum reading from?

Is your PCV clear? I'm wondering if you have excessive crankcase pressure.

 

[UGA2018]

Vacuum reading is from the "thingy" ( I can't remember the name for the life of me!) that is on top of the intake manifold near the engine bay. There are two openings on top and I attach to the smaller one. I've done it here before several times and haven't had trouble with it.

I replaced the PCV valve with an OEM one less than 800 miles ago. The old one was not OEM and was making a lot of strange noises. I don't think it is a problem but I can do a quick check and see if it is rattling.

 

[UGA2018]

Here's some more info before I head out to do the compression test.

I filled it back up with oil and drove it about 10 miles to run a few errands. I noticed that it smoked the most in lower RPM's and when sitting at idle. When I was going faster I really didn't notice the smoke although that could be just because of the speed.

If I sat in idle for a bit and then accelerated it smoked a lot. Same thing was happening yesterday.

Now off to do the compression test.

 

[UGA2018]

PCV sounds fine when i shake it. I can hear the ball rattling.

I did notice some oil that you can see in this pic

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Oil pan plug... if the plastic ring that goes w/ it doesn’t do it
Add a ring of rtv to the plug and gently twist but not all the way, let it tack up for 20 mins or so then twist more. Now you’ve made your own gasket of sorts. That’s what I had to do w/ mine.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Compression test dry and wet. That will show a lot. Do you have the tool to do a leak down? That would show even more but the dry and wet might be enough. Have you looked in the bottom of your air cleaner? Could be blowby maybe?

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

PCV sounds fine when i shake it. I can hear the ball rattling.

I did notice some oil that you can see in this pic

View attachment 1598993

Did you pull the egr from the intake and add a MAF or JimC plate w/ a 90 degree connection for the PCV hose? If not try blowing into that hose that you pulled off the PCV line and make sure it’s not blocked.

 

[FJACS]

If you're doing a leakdown and compression test you should be able to figure out what's up.

If you haven't started that job yet, I'd be interested in if you have vacuum at the dipstick - stick your vac gauge in the dipstick hole and run the engine. Also. Once that is done, pull the pcv hose and see if it is pulling vacuum.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

From the dip. Yeesh. I remember reading about that. Not good right... in or out?

 

[MoaByte]

Maybe it's just the valve seals. I'm having the same issue on my 20r pickup. It started after hauling oats down the highway for several hours. Truck never saw those kind of rpms in it's life.