OM617 Oil Pan replace or just gasket?

[byronnash]

My oil pan is dented but I don't have any reason to believe anything inside is damaged since I've been driving it that way for 3 years. I'm pretty sure the gasket has a slow leak though as with about every other point in my engine.
I'm thinking of going ahead and putting a new gasket in at the next oil change soon. I saw that the pans are reasonably cheap. Is it any easier/harder to put in a new pan versus an old one? I've never taken a pan off and want to make sure I'm not opening up a can of worms either way. (new or old pan) I'm just interested in the easiest install option. Time is never something I have a lot of.

[Junkman]

Oil pan comes off when you change gasket. Non-dented pan is as easy to install as a dented pan. I would wait for good weather unless you have a reason to do differently.

[byronnash]

Thanks Junkman. Just more or less getting tired of leaving oil on the ground wherever I go. I know changing the gasket won't eliminate it, but it may lessen it I hope.

[mach4]

You might want to consider doing a power wash on the engine as a way of getting it clean enough to see where the leak is actually coming from. If you decide to pull the pan, you might be able to pound out the dent if it's not too bad. Of course a new pan would be a lot easier. The leak might be coming from the front seal, or even the valve cover and just running down and making it look like the pan. I'd get it cleaned up and diagnosed before tearing into the pan. If it's not leaking, you run the risk of changing the gasket and not getting it sealed properly and introducing another leak.

[Diesel911]

My pan was dented to the extent it was against the Oil Pump Inlet.

I laid the bottom of the Pan over a sandy area in My Yard and uses a piece of 4x4 and applied a Hammer to the other end to flatten it out.

[pawoSD]

I replaced mine since it had some rust and a dent, they are cheap. I think I paid barely $30 for it....though that was several years ago.

[Biodiesel300TD]

The old pan's sealing rim might be damaged causing the leak, or it could just need a gasket. You can always try to hammer then dent back out, but you take the risk of cracking the metal. I'd just pull your pan and clean everything and put a new gasket on it and see what happens. Make sure when you pull the pan off that you look over the inside to make sure the dent isn't actually rubbing or damaging anything.

[JustPassinThru]

FWIW, 19 months ago I pulled the oilpan on my '85 300D, to retrieve pieces of broken checkvalve out of the vacuum pump, and then nobody local had a gasket, neither dealer nor indie. I knew I was going to need the car the next evening, so I used PermaTex Ultra Black without a gasket, bolted the pan up, let it cure for 24 hours in 50-to-60-degree dry weather before refilling the engine with oil, and up til the point I totalled the car 4 months ago by hitting a deer, over the span of 15 months and about 35,000 miles the oilpan did not leak.

[MBeige]

If you're going to replace the pan or remove it, might as well put a new gasket on. Clean those allen bolt heads properly before you attempt to remove them!!

Inspect the oil drain plug, if the current one is nearly rounded off, time to replace it too. Just trying to save you the work of doing it again, the parts are cheap.




However, make sure you know the source of the leak first. If the leak is coming from the turbo drain seal, replace it too while the pan is out.