Upper Oil Pan Gasket - M42

[dc318icabrio]

Hi everyone,

It looks like my upper oil pan gasket is seeping. I was hoping it was the lower, but upon closer inspection, it's definitely the upper. I searched around and am seeing two general methods of replacing this - 1) lifting the engine up about 6 inches with a hoist and accessing the pan that way or 2) removing/lowering subframe. I am leaning towards 1) but wanted to hear from people who have done this before as confirmation that this is the way to go. Thanks!

[the_thryll]

I haven't tried options 1 or 2, but recently used a third option that involved lifting the engine from below when the cylinder head is removed. This option was straightforward, but I doubt it would work if the head was still on the block. Before lifting the engine, I drained the oil, removed the belts, vibration dampener and pulley, PS pump bracket, and lower oil pan. I detached the PS pump from the upper oil pan and hung it from the alternator bracket. I then removed the upper oil pan bolts, the lower nuts from the engine mounts, and the lower nuts for the transmission mounts. Next, I placed a jack beneath the AC bracket, then jacked up the engine 5 to 6 inches, until there was space to pull out the upper oil pan toward the front of the car. I also had my radiator out for a bit more space, but removing it may not be necessary.

If you lift from above or below, it would help to have a friend hold the upper pan while you put in the first few bolts, and to help you line up the engine and transmission mounts while lowering engine. My mounts didn't want to line up on their own, so I looped a zip tie around the mount bolt, and pulled on the zip tie in order to line up the mount bolts with the holes in the subframe. I cut the zip tie after the bolts were through the frame holes.

If I were you though, I first would check for oil leakage around my oil filter housing. If leaking there, replace the housing gasket, inner o-ring, and oil dipstick o-ring first, wipe off all the oil from the oil pans and engine. After some driving, reassess the oil leakage situation before taking on the upper oil pan gasket job.

[bmwman91]

Option 1 can work, I have done it. You aren't getting 6" of lift due to the transmission topping out in the tunnel, but you can get just barely enough clearance to slide it out. The downside is that putting it back in with a clean gasket is a huge pain in the ass. By the time you get it in place, the gasket is unlikely to be clean anymore, and if you used gasket sealer, half of it will end up smeared on other stuff.

Dropping the subframe is probably a lot more work, but it would at least allow for easy pan installation without getting crud on the new gasket.

There's no "easy" way with this one unfortunately.

[dc318icabrio]

Thanks guys. Looks like no easy way to do this but will attempt the engine lift method when I do this. The leak isn't too bad and I have to verify that nothing else is leaking first, as mentioned above. Some other issues take precedence now anyway, especially since it's not leaking majorly. I found this walkthrough that I am going to follow, see how it goes: https://steveneudaly.wordpress.com/2...n-replacement/

[bmwman91]

Where does the oil appear to be coming from / to where has it spread?

The most common leak location by far is the oil filter housing's oil outlet. When it leaks there, it gets all over the place, even to the other side of the engine. Hot oil will wick and run like crazy. Most of the time, replacing the filter housing gasket and o-rings will remedy an oily M42. Cleanliness is paramount on all sealing surfaces there since it is right at the pump outlet and under the most pressure, and the round hole with the o-rings is where clean oil is fed into the engine, so obviously getting crud in there is bad too.