300 SDL Oil Pan Cracked
 

Hello Hello,

A large rock made a mess of my oil pan today whilst motoring down a particularly rubble-strewn back road in rural texas. Oil hemmorhaged from the pan, from two 3-8mm cracks on the leading edge of the oil pan.

So, a few questions from those who know more than I:

-how bad to r and r the oil pan with a used unit, and how much should the used unit run, price wise? would i be advised to not undertake this outing in my driveway/indie shop?
-should i clean up the cracks and tig weld some flat stock over the cracks, without removing the pan?
-how hard is it to get the pan off anyway?
-what is the pucker factor in using jb weld, since these cracks are pretty small.
-my faithful sdl has only 1200 dollars into her, total, and ive had her for 10k miles plus, only changing the oil, and monitoring her vitals. so i dont want klaus and his team taking her to the liposuction expert to bring her a second life.

all comments, ideas, etc. much appreciated.

cheers,
John

Welding OFF of the engine is the safest way! Have had several catch on fire while welding when there was any oil at all in the pan!

weld oil pan
 

M.B. Doc is exactly right in "off the engine". A co-worker of mine back in the 60's tried welding the pan on the engine with the oil plug out. Third degree burns when the remaining oil in the pan came running out the plug hole onto his arm. So, in addition to welding with the pan off and on the bench, clean it thoroughly before welding. I apologize for repeating a Master Tech, but it is such an important point Doc recommended, it bears repeating.

Off the car
 

thanks for the advice about welding off the car. i was worried about frying the electrics as well as starting a small fire inside the block!

but tell me, just how hard is it to get that pan off? it looks like a *****!

thanks
John

That is a correct assumption

Never tried this, just a suggestion!!

If your oil pan has a side cover it may be possible to clean the inside of the pan. Then put the side cover back on and fill the engine with CO2 or Argon from the welding machine, this should prevent fires. Of course an expert welder and good body protection (and fire extinguisher) are required for this repair. I always use CO2 to fill hollow body parts to prevent fires.

thanks for the advice everyone
 

as it turns out, the cracks were small enough to fix with the devil's paste, jb weld. i figure, let's see how long this stuff will last on the $350 aluminum oil pan that takes 7 hours to r&r. 10 bucks and an hour vs. almost a grand and who knows how long is not a question at all, imho.

i'll report back with the success or failure of my cheapass resoursefulness.

best,
John
87 300 SDL 187k $1272.00 and counting.

ps. any good jb weld stories out there?