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Alright, so I was driving my girlfriend's '90 Legacy the other day & -barely- went up a curb ramp at a dumb angle & slightly nicked the bottom of the pan on the curb. Sure enough, it ruptured the seal around the entire pan & there is oil EVERYWHERE under her car. So, this saturday, I gotta fix it. My question is this -

I know I need to disconnect the motor mounts below & dogbone up top in order to raise the engine & gain access to the rear bolts of the pan. Thing is, whenever I have jacked up a motor inside of the car in the past, is was by placing the jack ON the oil pan (with a piece of wood in-between, of course). So... If I am to lift the motor at a point other than the pan, where might that point be? Also, any other tips on removing / re-sealing a pan with the motor in the car would be awesome.

I don't understand why you're lifting the motor to remove the oil pan. Why don't you just jack the car up underneath the crossmember below the engine and put it on jack stands and remove the pan from there?

Kimo,

He's correct in that he needs to jack up the motor to get at the rear bolts on the oil pan.

What I would suggest is to put the car on jack stands (like normal), and then once the engine, trans, & dog bone are unbolted, jack up the motor via the oil pan (using a piece of wood) as much as you can slide a scrap of 2x4 between the crossmember and bottom of the trans. This will keep the engine and everything raised slightly so you can get the jack out and do the work on the oil pan.

You should really be using a hoist. That'd be much "safer" in my opinion.

My bad I thought you could remove it like it is.

Have to agree with cj. I borrowed my neighbor's cherry-picker to do my oil pan a couple years ago. I don't know of any other way to do it.

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Use an engine hoist, be careful not to stress the exhaust manifold on the crossmember. It will go just barely high enough to get to the rear oil pan bolts without removing the manifold. Also be kind to the oil pickup tube when you maneuver the pan off.

AWD_addict wrote:Use an engine hoist, be careful not to stress the exhaust manifold on the crossmember. It will go just barely high enough to get to the rear oil pan bolts without removing the manifold. Also be kind to the oil pickup tube when you maneuver the pan off.

there's one 10mm bolt on top of the driver's side head that you can remove, and the entire dipstick tube can be removed from the oil pan, however i don't think it'll come completely out since it's beind the timing cover

Make sure theres enough slack in stuff connecting to the engine like the rad hoses etc. I had the rad inlet break off the rad when I was replacing motor mounts, it turned into a bad day.

cj91legss wrote:there's one 10mm bolt on top of the driver's side head that you can remove, and the entire dipstick tube can be removed from the oil pan, however i don't think it'll come completely out since it's beind the timing cover

I don't remember the procedure with the dipstick. It can't have been too complicated, I resealed the oil pan in an evening.

Success! I disconnected the dog bone & motor mounts (after getting the car on jackstands), jacked the motor up by the oil pan/2x4. With the motor elevated, I slid some thin (about 3/4"-1" thick" pieces of wood in between the motor mounts & crossmember. That way, the engine was still being supported by it's normal contact points, just spaced up a bit. This gave me all the access I needed to get to the rear bolts & everything else went really smooth! Thanks for the tips!

i am about to do my oil pan tomorrow... when i read the haynes manual, it says you can reach the rear oil pan bolts throught the access holes in the crossmember... is that wrong? i know that doing it the way silence did it would make it easier, but is it that necessary?

In my opinion Haynes is wrong....there's not enough room.

http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... P_4934.JPG

Why don't you guys just jack up the engine by the transmission :S Put the car on jackstands first, than remove the dog bone and 2 engine mount bolts, than lift by the front of the transmission.

ok so today i found out first hand that the manual is not always correct... lol yes i did jack up the motor after unbolting the motor mounts... fun times..