How do you replace an oil pan on a Ford Aspire?

Answer 1

Well, I'll try to remember the tools first... get a comprehensive metric socket set, get metric box-end wrenches (at LEAST a 14mm for the exhaust bracket) and the stuff to drain the oil, which you do first, obviously. The one-piece oil pan gaskets seem to be extinct for this engine, so you most likely will end up with a FelPro kit, which is two molded pieces that hug the crank bosses on either end, and two tubes of black RTV. Installing those end pieces requires your best work! Get a service manual and a torque wrench that will go down to about 6 foot-pounds. Too much torque on the pan bolts, too much RTV on the seal surfaces, too little time letting the RTV tack up, an unclean mating surface, all of this and more will result in re-doing the job. Do it slowly and follow the directions (you HAVE to have a service manual) and you should be fine.

The exhaust downpipe has to be removed (we tried to avoid that, but there's no way around it), so I'd say the most important thing is to get a good penetrant on the header-to-downpipe nuts on the underside of the header flange. We broke two of the three and spent 2 days drilling the bolts out, and that didn't even work- we ended up managing to get one broken bolt out, but the other ended up being a jury-rigged disaster. If any of those nuts gives you trouble coming off, work it back and forth like you were tapping a hole. We burned it on off of there with an impact, and that was a stupid mistake.

Anyway, there are 18 10mm bolts holding the pan on, and we got the pan to turn loose by using a hammer to tap box-cutter blades between the pan and the engine block. The blades slide nicely between the two, severing the old gasket material and making it a snap to remove the pan. Even if a blade goes too far in, once the pan is off, the blade is right there for you to pick up! So get a box of 20 to 30 box cutter blades, too. The O2 sensor doesn't have to be removed, so don't sweat that. Uh... what else?

I guess just make sure that you clean the crap out of the pan really well. Ours was a 95 Aspire and it had 3/4" of gook in the pan that was so thick it was like dried clay. Also clean the pan surface and the engine block surface are as clean as you can possibly get them, then, like I said, follow the manual directions regarding the order of operations and tightening torques on those bolts. Tighten the pan bolts on the inside first, working your way out to the crank ends, finger tight. We let it tack up for 6 hours, but I guess you can go faster than that. Tighten them in stages until you hit the final torque, which is only like 8 to 10 foot-pounds- it's not much at all, but too little and it will leak, and too tight will cause the end seals to squeeze out! I keep all of my service manuals at the shop, so I can't remember the torques for that car off-hand.

All of this stuff can be bought at AutoZone, Advance Auto, O'Reilly, whatever big chain auto parts store you happen to have in your area. Cheap, too- we did inner and outer tie rod ends, control arms, valve cover gasket, PCV valve, air and oil filters, fuel filter, oil pan gasket, front crank seal, rear main seal, struts all around, clutch, timing belt and tensioner, new tires all around and welded up a hole in the exhaust resonator for less than $800. Thing literally drives like a brand new car.