You bought what?? 88 Eagle Wagon - Overlander Build

[amcfool1]

hi, while you have the front axle out, change the fluid in it! it is a real PITA doing this with axle on the car. good luck, gz

[eaglefreek]

The transfer case would be still connected to the transmission. Just make sure you support it with a jack so you can adjust the angle. At that point, you're about 80%-90% of the way there to remove the engine.   If the transmission input seal was leaking, you would see  a lot of fluid inside the bell housing after you removed the torque converter inspection cover. Also, make sure you take a good look at your oil pressure sender and make sure it's not leaking.

[amarshall]

Darn it.  My oil pressure sender is dry.  You got me excited for second!

Yeah amcfool1, I'm with you on the fluid change.  That's part of the reason I went this far, along with the torn half-shaft boot.  All that stacked up to at least take out the front axle.  I opened up the axle and it looked good to me, no obvious problems. Fluid wasn't that bad, and no metal bits anywhere.  Whew.

Eaglefreek, is the "torque converter inspection cover" the same as the little flywheel cover panel?  Just to make sure I'm looking the right place.

[mudkicker715]

You are looking at the same thing.

[mudkicker715]

Another thought is the 4.0l oil pan gasket is a better gasket. Its a rubber 1 peice gasket from felpro.

[amcfool1]

x2 on the one piece gasket, #fel-OS34308R, just put one on my last rebuild, good luck, gz

[amarshall]

I unbolted the engine mounts and was able to jack the engine up a little bit.  I've got some wood blocks shoved into the gap in the motor mount, holding the engine up.  This gave me the confidence to finally unbolt the oil pan, but it's stuck on there pretty good.  I ran out of energy last night, but I'll attack again with a putty knife and hope to get it out.  Haven't touched the trans crossmember yet, but that will be my backup plan if the oil pan still won't come out.

Oh, and I managed to break the head off one of the oil pan bolts. Luckily I think it's one where the hole goes all the way through the block so I should be able to drill it and re-tap the threads.  Fun!

I also scored a cargo basket for the roof today on C-List.  It's an aluminum Surco Safari basket, which came with cross bars and gutter mounts.  Sweet!

[amarshall]

I finally got the oil pan pried loose, thanks to a very firm putty knife.  I can absolutely confirm that it will NOT come out, even after jacking the engine up about 1-1/4".  I will need to drop the trans cross member, just like Strike Eagle reported.

This is not enough.


Here's the roof basket I found used.  I may cut it down a little, it's actually pretty wide.  50" wide x 60" long.



I sat it in place to get it out of the way.  I will slide it back when doing the final installation.  I will try to use the two gutter mounts in the front, and then reinstall the stock roof rack and slide those crossbars to the rear.  This should give me 4 crossbars to spread the weight.  There will be a spare mounted up there.

[eaglefreek]

Nice. Good luck with the oil pan job. It's not going to be easy getting the new gasket in there. You might want to get some high tack gasket spray or something similar and attach the gasket to the oil pan before reinstalling.

[amarshall]

Success!  Geez, what a pain that was!



In the end, I had to lower the transmission and raise the front of the engine quite a bit.  If I had a hoist, I would have used it.  The engine mounts have 2-1/2" thick wood blocks in them - but they are on a diagonal so the engine has come up way more than that..  Here is the final position of the engine, you can tell how high it is from the fan.



So now I have a bunch of cleanup to do.  I bought one of the fancy Fel-Pro gaskets, thank goodness I won't have to mess with RTV when squeezing the pan back in there.

I'm debating whether to do the rear main seal while I've got it open, any advice would be welcome.  I'm pretty sure the rear of the oil pan was leaking, because I didn't find any gasket material and it was really oily.  So maybe just the pan was leaking, but I'd hate to get it back together and find out the rear main is also leaking.

Here are some shots of the underside, if you see a problem speak now or forever hold your peace!!  Thanks guys!

[amcfool1]

good job! DEFINITELY replace rear main seal at this time! good luck, gz

[eagleman]

Would be a pity now that you have went this far and not replacing the rear main seal. If you don't you'll end up wishing you would have.

[vangremlin]

Yep, replace the rear main seal, you've done 95% of the work already.

[mudkicker715]

Just use lots of caution putting it in to not tear it. Plus dip it in gladiator oil (motor oil lol)  before carefully pushing it in. Sorry bad puns there, but good advice.

[amarshall]

Thanks everybody for the encouragement!

Yeah, I guess I knew all along I'd be doing the rear main seal. That little voice in my head was insisting.  Plus, there is no way I'm going to go through all this again later!  I was able to do the seal pretty quickly, which surprised me.  Getting access was a battle, but the seal wasn't bad at all.  The old seal was pretty crunchy, and the edge where it seals against the crank was pretty worn.  So I feel pretty good about it.





I broke one of the oil pan bolts, so I had to drill and retap the hole.  Not too bad, luckily it was one that passes all the way through the block.  Then did a little work with the grinder and some black paint, and the oil pan was ready to go back in. 



I like the Fel-Pro gasket, but I did add a skim coat of RTV along the rear edge.



The little clips that came with the gasket worked pretty well to hold the gasket in place on the block.



After all that work, it would be nice to have a good picture of something.  This was the best I could get.



Now all that's left is to put it all back together:  Lower the engine onto the mounts, raise the transmission and put back the crossmember, reconnect front and rear driveshafts, rehang the exhaust, put in the starter, connect radiator hoses and add fluid, connect the fuel line, oh and put back the front axle, connect the half shafts, and surely I'm forgetting something. You know, all the easy stuff.

Vangremlin, you said I was 95% done.  That last 5% gets me every time!