LariatDude

After doing the timing job and replacing every gasket including the pan, I知 now leaking oil. Used full synthetic mobile 1. A few weeks ago I hit a pot hole with the passenger front wheel that jolted the **** out of the truck. Nothing broke but now coincidentally, I noticed five days ago the pan was pretty oily with a drop hanging off it. No stains in the driveway. So after putting UV dye in the oil and checking, sure enough I知 seeing seepage from the rear of the pan bolts and part of where the pan gasket protrudes (aligning tab). There is no seep on the pan sides, and the front passenger pan bolt closest to the wheel has UV dye on it. So does my AC compressor bottom.

My question is, can a hole jolt the truck so badly that it cracks the plastic gasket?? Before I drop my front axle all over again invent new curse words...is something like that even possible? I also saw ONE drop of oil on the driver side valve cover bolt furthermost to the firewall. How the hell is that gunna happen on only one bolt (it was torqued down) and from a brand new valve cover gasket?

Lastly, it seemed rather odd I saw Mobile 1 on sale at Walmart a few days ago. All set up so people could see the sale. What? Is there something in that brand that is eating my gasket??? Beyond frustrated by this outcome. Did not want to touch my pan ever again after the bs method Ford has made us have to do with 4x4 vehicles.

techrep

iTrader: (1)

Wipe it clean and tighten up the bolts a tad.

dukedkt442

It痴 not the oil.

Depending on the brand, I致e had brand new gaskets start leaking inside of a month. Cheaper gaskets are made of cheaper materials, and the one in particular that I remember had rubber significantly less pliable than the OE gasket I replaced it with

Im assuming you torqued it from the inside out in a circular fashion.

LariatDude

I tried tightening the rear bolts and they were still good. I religiously followed the diagram for torquing as well

dukedkt442

What brand gasket? Clean all mounting surfaces vigorously with Scotchbrite?

ive had hit or miss luck with Victor Reinz, and refuse to look at anything made by Uro. FelPro has usually worked well, but I have heard of short term failures; the one for the OFH on my Olds blew out and leaked like it wasn稚 there immediately upon first startup after I installed the engine.

tlrtucker

It's not uncommon for the oil pan flange (the area the bolts go thru) to get bent out of shape due to over tightening. My brother did this to what is now my F150's transmission pan and it started leaking pretty bad. We took the pan back off, pounded the mounting flange of the trans pan flat and remounted. Been leak free for 2+ years

redfishtd

There are metal joints on the surfaces that the gaskets seal to . You must clean the surfaces and apply fresh RTV within a few minutes of mounting new gasket Its true on timing cover ,valve cover and oil pan . Its in the ford service manual . Easy to see and you can catch your finger nail on the joints. New gaskets should not leak and these gaskets are mainly reusable. Its not the oil !!!! Same with the keyway on crank its coated with new rtv within minutes of assemble as keyway rotates thru seal in timing cover . The devil is in the details .
It pays to read the service manual several times and make notes so you don't miss a step .
There are many bolts on the valve covers, plenty to insure no leaks ,But if the joint is open it won't ever seal .

LariatDude

Thanks for the replies thus far! To answer the general questions:

I made the mounting surfaces shine from cleanliness. I知 a huge nerd with cleaning these things. I used the FordTechMakuloco recommendation on Felpro gaskets for the valve and timing cover(s) and Ford OEM oil pan gasket. The bolts were torqued to proper number and in correct order. Double checked the sequence and numbers for everything during the three days it took me to do the timing job.

The leak points seem to stem from the side that went into the pot hole. I went back and noticed one of the timing cover bolts above the compressor to be leaking a drop too. So I tightened that maybe another small turn. Again, everything was cleaned and correctly torqued. Didn稚 notice any leaks for the two months that followed the timing job and I religiously would crawl under and check.