I can't believe that the oil pan is that much of a pain to remove. I have an 86 SE with a V6. The oil pan is leaking...I have to add about 1/2 quart every 3 weeks.

Just from what I saw when under the vehicle, it looks like I'll have to remove the starter, fly wheel cover?, and even a motor mount is in the way of some of the bolts.

I think I'm just going to keep adding oil until it gets really bad....I'm kind of burned out on working on cars lately.

I'd like to know what the engineers who designed this were thinking...if they were thinking at all

Are you sure it is your op and not something else?
Your observations are correct, the starter needs to be removed (bat disconnect, two electrical connections and two bolts), cover plate may ot may not need to be removed(three or four bolts, short ones!) and the front of the engine by disconnecting the mount and jacking the engine up a bit at the pulley. The op takes more time to remove that getting there.

I sneezed and hit additional keys!!

[This message has been edited by Indiana_resto_guy (edited 06-18-2003).]

quote Originally posted by ditch: I can't believe that the oil pan is that much of a pain to remove. I have an 86 SE with a V6. The oil pan is leaking...I have to add about 1/2 quart every 3 weeks. Just from what I saw when under the vehicle, it looks like I'll have to remove the starter, fly wheel cover?, and even a motor mount is in the way of some of the bolts. I think I'm just going to keep adding oil until it gets really bad....I'm kind of burned out on working on cars lately. I'd like to know what the engineers who designed this were thinking...if they were thinking at all

Oil pans on most cars are hard to remove with the engine in the car. With the Fiero, you will need to drain the oil, disconnect battery cable, remove the starter, jack up and support the engine, disconnect the front motor mount and remove the motor mount bracket. Then put a small piece of 2 x 4 under the harmonic balancer and lower the engine down and let it sit on the cradle that way. You should now be able to remove all of the oil pan bolts (and nuts) and the pan comes down easily. When reassembling and installing the gasket, don't forget a small dab of sealant at the edges of the semicircle area at the front and rear of the pan.

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87GT 3.4 Turbo Best 0-60 5.2 seconds
http://www.turbochargerpower.com/turbo.htm

I just went through the nonsense of replacing my oilpan gasket yesterday on my V8 Fiero. It's very much the same process for the modified engine as it is for the stock V6.

The original owner I bought the car from knew it leaked (and I did, too). He had much the same attitude you did - "oil is cheap - I'm an old man, and I'm not crawling under there unless I have to." After performing the gasket renewal process, I can see why he decided to just add oil when necessary.

When you decide to tackle the project, make sure you have plenty of time, and plenty of patience...

It's definitely the oil pan. The oil is oozing out from the gasket. I've done oil pan gaskets in 3 other vehicles in the past and it was as simple as removing the bolts...nothing in the way.

Like I said, it's bull s#$% that anyone should have to do so much just to remove something as simple as an oil pan.

I'm half tempted to see what a garage would charge to do it for me...I know labor would be all the cost, but still may be worth it to me if it's reasonable...like I said, I'm really burned out on car repair lately.

thanks for the replys!

Dennis has the procedure pretty much correct, but I'd like to add a couple things.

First is that I think I had to use more than just a 2x4 to get the front of the motor high enough so the pan would clear the front main bearing.

Second is that I had to disconnect the dog bone to get the front of the motor high enough.

It's really not that difficult, it's just tedious.

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Doug Chase
'88 Fiero Formula 5-spd (autocrosser)
'88 Fiero GT 5-spd (daily driver)
'85 Fiero GT 5-spd (rally car)
'87 Fiero SE V6 5-spd (for sale $2200)
'88 Fiero Formula 5-spd (parts car / future rally car #2)
Custom roll cage fabrication available
Custom exhaust fabrication available

You're in luck! It's an 86. It is in my opinion the easiest year v6 that there is to do. On the 87 and 88 you have to remove the front bracket that the mount bolts to. NOW THAT IS A B!TCH!!!!!

Really not all that bad. You should be able to remove it in about 1 to 1.5 hrs if you've never done one before. I can do an 86 in about 30 min. Good luck.....give it a shot!

Phil

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87 FIERO GT 2.8 5spd
0-60 in 6.8 seconds!
87 FIERO CPE 2.5 5spd
86 FIERO SE 2.5 AUTO
87 FIERO GT 2.8 4SPD
If you found my advice helpful, please take the time to give me a positive rating. Thanks

In all honestly, it's really not too bad, takes time...but compared to doing this on other makes of cars it's about the same or easier. Replacing the oil pan gasket is not what I would call something that needs to be done on a regular basis vs those cars where you need to 'roll' the engine just replace the spark plugs - now that is stupid.

Tim

Hey.. good thread. I was going to ask the same thing as mine needs to come off so I can weld a return fitting in the pan for my turbo.

Hope all goes well....

ditch , did mine recently (same as yours 86 Se V6). GTDude I suspect yours has already been notched or the pan somehow modded for it to come straight out.

Instead of raising the engine I decided to 'notch' the engine mount to make oil pan removal more simple in the future (it will most likely be me doing it again next time so I think its a valuable investment of time)!

Took one of these:

Marked off roughly where I wanted to notch:

The jobs a carrot (2pence has exactly a 1" diameter, the other two 'bits' were floating in the pan!:

if its leaking at the gasket, have you tried torqueing it back down? the bolts do loosen up sometimes.

My oilpan had a leak on the side, I drained the oil, took a dremil tool to it to clean the paint off a little, cleaned it with alcohol, then put a small piece of sheet metal on it with JB weld epoxy - held on overnight with shipping tape.

that was two years ago - so far, so good!