Oil Pan replacement fun and Engine Hoist connection points?

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blownsc

Registered User
So i hit a pretty massive lip/pot hole on the freeway after a big storm and bottomed out, cracking my oil pan and taking a nice chunk out of it as well. I'm going to pick one up from a local junk yard but I need someone knowledgeable to reassure me that an oil pan w/ low oil sensor from a 92 Thunderbird will fit on my 90 sc. I'm going to rent a engine hoist and drop the k-member, and i have my rtv and E-18 socket all ready. Just want to make sure i'm not going to get it 1/2 apart and realize that they are different parts.

-Almost forgot. I've never used and engine hoist before. Where are good attachment points on the engine w/o ripping it apart and what hardware should I use to attach it?

Thanks,
Kyle
 
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they are the same all you have to do is drill out hole for the sensor i have used a n/a oil pan before .

and have both sitting here in front of me i always have extras lol if ya cant get one let me know i can let you have this one for shipping cost.
 
Some non-SC cars have the VMM too, so you may get one with the hole already drilled. Also, you shouldn't get under the car with the engine on a hoist only. A crossbar across the fenders or something is an important safety precaution.
 
well technically i don't know that it's not an sc oil pan, i'm just assuming it isn't. When selecting the part however, the one i'm looking at has the low oil sensor as opposed to the ones that they have that are from t-birds w/o the low oil sensor. Is that the hole you're talking about drilling? So since this one has the low oil sensor am I correct in assuming that I won't have to drill or is there another sensor that i'm not thinking of that this oil pan may not have a hole for. The description is "Oil Pan, 1992, Ford Thunderbird (3.8L), w/low oil sensr-"
 
Remove the upper left and right tensioners. Replace the bolts and reuse them in your hoist chain. Works good for the front anyhow.
 
I had the supercharger ic tubes ect. off and used the threded holes in back of heads, some chain and a come along hooked to a large beam in my car port. up and out
 
i did this once i raised egine a little removed mount bolts ,
placed a 4x4 aross the fenders with a chai to catch engine incase engine hoist failed.

I removed the bolts holding subframe to body and lowered the k member this let me pull oil pan with relative ease few other things to remove loosen like steering and such but it was not a hard job.
 
what is the best way to remove the oil pan.
i have a 92 sc auto and it needs one.

thanks
 
I havent worked on a SC yet...Soon enough though.....Maybe Tuesday

But...Id be real tempted to check a main and rod bearing as well as clean the oil pickup out since I was down there....Look for extra play in any rods and old RTV strands in the oil pickup....


Also choose your RTV....I use the black......And Im figuring there isnt many spots to bolt your engine hoist to........Im not a fan of using aluminum heads for this.....Go ahead and use a short bolt in the head and snap.....Over tighten a longer bolt....And strip and maybe go through the head into an oil run or coolant run.....Get some extra washers to tighten up the slack in the chain and if you buy some longer bolts for the job go with a grade 8 with the same thread......Take the other bolt with to match it up perfect...Its worth paying $5 now then paying later.....

Good Luck

F1
 
md -10, here's a quick synopsis on what I plan on doing.
I recently had the engine rebuilt and the motor mounts are new, so I don't plan on touching those except to unbolt the sub frame from the motor. I plan on jacking up the car, and supporting the frame on the side frame rails, then using the engine hoist to support the engine and a 4x4 across the fenders w/ another chain around the engine in case the hoist fails (if i can figure out the best place to chain it up), then placing the floor jack under the k-member and disconnecting all the bolts (the e18 torx ones and those that go through the bottom of the engine mounts) I think i need to loosen the power steering lines as well, and then lower the k-member with the engine and frame supported. The oil pan replacement should be pretty straight forward. Remove, clean, black rtv and the rubber gasket ends, replace and then reverse the whole process. I've ripped engines apart before, just never attached an engine hoist so it should be interesting. I'll try to take pictures when I do it. Now i'm just waiting on the oil pan :)
 
When I dropped the pan on my XR7 last year, we made up a truss to support the engine from above. The nice thing about doing it this way, is that you don't have to deal with the legs of the engine hoist getting in your way under the car.

trussedup.jpg


-Rod
 
so the best way is drop the k-member.
i'm sure it will be more clear once i am under the car but can i use car ramps to to this. so i can use any 3.8 oil pan or does it need to be from a thunderbird.

thanks
 
that's pretty sweet race cougar. Maybe I can make something like that out of a hard wood 4x4 and some oversize washers. I can't fab that out of metal like yours. Really nice and simple solution to a pain in the ~~~ problem though. That and I could get away from the $45 a day rental on the engine hoist if I make something myself and have more room under the car....... I'm thinking a pair of 3/4" x 6" (or x8") eye bolts through the 4x4 with a 3" washer up top to spread the load on the beam and a nice over sized nut on each to crank it and lift/hold the engine...... thoughts?
 
Just FYI, some T-Birds came with steel engine support fixtures on each side, held on with the exhaust manifold studs. It may have been more likely on the non-SC cars, but I dunno. My old 89 Base had them. If you come across one in the junkyard, it might be a good idea to snag 'em.
 
good call, i'll check mine. i'm trying to find the load bearing capacity of any 4x4 or 4x6 hard wood for a 6' span to make sure it's even safe to have that much weight on a beam of that size and length. it would be nice to know if this will even work....... i'll keep looking, but the hoist renting is still the tried and true way i think.
 
blownsc said:
that's pretty sweet race cougar. Maybe I can make something like that out of a hard wood 4x4 and some oversize washers. I can't fab that out of metal like yours. Really nice and simple solution to a pain in the ~~~ problem though. That and I could get away from the $45 a day rental on the engine hoist if I make something myself and have more room under the car....... I'm thinking a pair of 3/4" x 6" (or x8") eye bolts through the 4x4 with a 3" washer up top to spread the load on the beam and a nice over sized nut on each to crank it and lift/hold the engine...... thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm not certain if I'd trust a 4x4", but the rest sounds fine. Keep in mind that you don't really need to raise the engine much at all. You just want to tighten the nuts on the eye bolts until the engine just begins to move upward, then drop the K-member to get your working space.

Another trick I did was to replace the four corner bolts attaching the K-member to the frame with four 7 or 8" long bolts (with the same thread of course). After replacing those four, I removed the other four bolts, and lowered the K-member down 7 or 8". This allows you to get the jack out of the way, and keeps the K-member lined up. From what I remember, the bolts that I used were actually a little excessive in length. I think a 6" bolt would be about right.

Those are just little tricks to make the job quicker and easier.

-Rod
 
another really good call. that would make my life easier. do you happen to know the specs of those bolts so i could pick some up before hand? I was going to get the right sized rod to line it back up when i did the install, but that would be a much better solution for a couple bucks. If not, i can just run out and get them the day of the job. did you pick them up from a home supply store or auto parts store? From what i'm reading, a 4x4 is cutting it a bit close on load specs so i'm not really sure what else to use as a cross bar that's not going to run me more than the engine hoist rental. Another thing to ponder though is that ppl suggest this as a 'safety' precaution in case the engine hoist fails, but what if the 4x4 can't handle the weight anyways..... still waiting on the word for my oil pan, so until i get it, i'll keep looking into options. thanks a ton for the input btw
 
IIRC, I either had the bolts on hand, or picked them up through McMaster-Carr. I don't recall what thread those bolts were.

-Rod
 
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