Replacing oil pan and gasket on '83 300CD
 

The seal/gasket at the oil pan seems to be leaking.

A couple of questions:
The original pan has a good sized dent by the drain plug and I'm thinking that I might just replace the pan while I'm replacing the gasket.
Q: Is there any significant difference, besides price, between the Febi oil pan and the M-B oil pan?
Here's the Pelican Parts link:
Pelican Parts - European Automotive Parts and Accessories - Porsche • BMW • Mercedes • Volkswagen • Audi • Saab • Volvo • MINI

Also, for the new pan gasket:
Pelican Parts - European Automotive Parts and Accessories - Porsche • BMW • Mercedes • Volkswagen • Audi • Saab • Volvo • MINI

I'm assuming that a sealant is supposed to be used with the new gasket. Yes? If so, does anyone have a recommendation for what brand+kind of sealant to use?
And is sealant used on both sides of the gasket?

Thanks for any guidance with this.

No sealant is meant to be used with this gasket. It should be good with out that. Usually leaks happen down there because the lower oil pan has had a whack and it is no longer straight. As you are replacing it that shouldn't be a problem though...

...clean the upper oil pan mating surface really well before fitting your new oil pan and the new gasket.

As for Febi - well I've had some junk from them before but it is usually their rubber parts that cause trouble.

The only likely thing that I can think of that would go wrong with a cheaper oil pan would be the welded threaded part of the pan where the drain plug fits and that it comes warped out of the box!

Good to know! :) I'll avoid sealant.

The dent in the pan certainly could explain the start of the leaking...

Yeah, I've wondered if warp out of the box could be a potential downside of a non-M-B pan. I just might go for the M-B pan to do this job once and have confidence that all is well thereafter.

Thanks for the helpful advice! :2thumbsup

Careful not to overtighten the pan screws. Overtightening = leaks.

Thanks for the reminder.
I see that in the Factory Service Manual, the torque specification for the 19 screws securing the lower pan is a mere 9-11 Nm. Not much...