oil pan bolt

[jeremy5780]

My 85 CJ7 is a weekend toy not a DD the last few times I have taken it out and brought it home and parked it I have noticed over the course of a few days there would be a small (size of a quarter) puddle of what I thought was gear oil from my front diff on the floor. Well tonight I decided to see where it was coming from and after some looking I seen it was oil dripping from the oil pan. The PO has a THICK bead of RTV sealing the front of the oil pan where it meets up behind the harmonic balancer. I'm assuming this is normal as the gasket does not seal round area. Well there are two 7/16 bolts right there behind the harmonic balncer so I decided to tighten them up, the first bolt I got about 3/4's turn on it to snug it up. the second was stripped! all the other bolts needed a good 1/2 to 3/4 turn to snug them all up. I'm going to leave the stripped alone until it becomes a problem! just curious if anyone has done a helicoil thread repair on on of these oil pan bolt holes?

 

[Tinman22]

Funny you should ask why just the other day we were putting my freshly not rodded AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l back together and in the process (of drinking beer) discovered that a 1/2 inch impact will strip out the bolt hole in the alluminium timing cover!!!!! I know crazy right! What kinda do they build these things out of any way? S naturally I swayed my way to the tap and die set, while someone else retrieved the drill and chucked up the required bit . I then began the arduous task of drilling and taping....oh sorry did I forget to mention the $25.00 silicone pan gasket I bought that very same morning? You know the one with the steel reinforcing in the perimeter and integral anti bottoming rings in the bolt holes. Ok so back to drilling the hole or as I like to call it destroying a gasket as the bit grabbed the anti bottoming ring and proceeded to wad up several inches of silicone at that point I was disarmed and sent o the barstool in the corner!


So what did we learn?
1 use a smaller bit next time
2 don't drink and try to do anything important
3 get friends that can think faster than you can act
4 always buy cheap cork gaskets
5 1/2 inch 1200 ft/lb nitro cat impacts are not for 3/8" bolts
6 dad was right I do the stupidest sometimes

 

[Tinman22]

Oh sorry ...it should be pretty easy you've got good access to the hole give it a shot.

 

[mstar]

Thanks for the reality check! I thought I was the only one that has those days. mike

 

[jeremy5780]

Tinman22 you gave me a good laugh!

 

[Tinman22]

Nope not even close.. I've got a "wall of shame" in my shop that she'd tears of laughter ,sorrow and regret I'm still trying to figure out how to hang up a 14 bolt thats been cut 6 and 1/2 times was still to narrow

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Just redrill and tap to 1/2" You almost there now.
LG

 

[mstar]

To the OP's original question.If it where my vehicle the next time it was convenient to remove the timing cover I would do so and repair damaged threads with the correct size helicoil (1/4-20 ?) and replace so everything is back to original and stronger than stock.I just did the timimg chain on my wrangler and not that big of job. mike

 

[Tinman22]

Mstar has the answer there. And depending on your mileage a timing set might be a good idea too.