Repair of Crack in Oil Pan
 

I have had this annoying oil drip under my engine for some time. I finally found a tiny hairline crack in the middle of the bottom of the aluminum Canton 427 Cobra pan. It was so small that it would take about 5 minutes for a drop of oil to form but over time, a large amount of oil would end up on the floor.

Pulling the pan would be a very big deal and I was trying to get ready for the Tulsa meet in less than a month, so here is what I did:

1. Cleaned the area well with rapid dry solvent (Electrical Clean).
2. Sanded the area around the crack to roughen the surface of the metal.
3. The key step was to come up with a way to stop the leak long enough for any substance to cure and seal. I used Superglue Gel and it worked perfectly, completely dry as of 6 hours later.
4. I used a tube of Permatex High Temp Epoxy Putty and made a patty 1/4 inch thick and about 2 inches larger than the crack area (an inch long).
5 I pressed the patty of putty centered over the crack, then placed a flat piece of 1x6 board covered with wax paper over the repair and used a floor jack to press the wood against the putty and flatten it out some and left that rig in place for an hour.
6. The epoxy harded to like steel, I sanded it smooth and made sure the edges were tapered well.
7. I then covered the entire repair with a thick layer of Permatex High Temp (up to 700 degrees) silicon gasket maker and smooth that over the entire patch and extended it another inch in every direction.
8. Finally, I covered the entire repair with the silver, self adhesive AC/Heat duct tape and smoothed out the silicone thru the tape.
9 Not a drop in 72 hours.

Not ideal but if I have to do this every 2 years till I get up the nerve to tackle pulling the pan, so be it!

Alan Sorkey
Shreveport, LA
CSX4083

The only issue that I see is that the crack will continue to get longer. You have not stopped the crack, just covered up the surface.

JMO of course.

Replace the pan it's not worth losing an engine.

A man's got to do what a man's got to do.........if it holds,don't worry about it, my guess is it will for a while, sooner or later it'll start dripping again......hope it holds till the winter and this winter pull the pan and have it welded,inside and out.......

David

As Terry said! You need to drill each end of the crack to stop it otherwise it's going to continue to run with each heat cycle. No comment on the fix, whatever works temporarily but you have to stop the crack.

Great solution! All those steps are probably a belt and suspenders solution, but you fixed it and you have piece of mind. Will it continue to crack, maybe. Will it eventually leak again, possibly. It will not be catastrophic, nor will it damage your engine. You know it is a weak point and you will keep an extra eye on it. Nice job!

All of that was easier than just pulling the pan? :confused:

I know I can pull my canton pan with the engine in the car and I doubt many have a tighter fit than I do.

I found a oil pan crack the night before a track event. I used JB Weld and it got me through the weekend. I say do what makes sense to you, I have seen JB Weld do some pretty amazing thing. I weld my pan the next week as the repair only stopped the leak until I started running the car hard. Mac

It's super easy to pull the pan and take it to have it tiged.