So this is the story. My friend and I changed my oil pan gasket on thursday december 30th, and I just checked it and it has unfortunately started to leak again. . . It was about 7 hours of work, but I'm pretty sure the second time around we could knock it out in 5. So I am willing to re-do it, but I have a few questions that somebody hopefully can answer first.

The bentley manual, and MINI have no spec on how to prep the gasket prior to installation. So we did it just how I did the valve cover gasket, because that hasn't leaked at all yet. Makes sense right? We cleaned the mating surfaces very well with brake cleaner, and then wiped them dry. We put a thin film of new, clean oil on the gasket and installed it. Everything to the proper torque, and correct tightening sequence. So I was thinking maybe this time I'll just clean the mating surfaces and install it dry. But then i also thought maybe it's the brake cleaner that got us. Maybe there was a thin film of residue left on the mating surfaces and it just thinned the oil we lubed the gasket with and the seal was broken?

Does anyone have any advice? Maybe someone who's done this job and it hasn't leaked on them? Or does anyone know somebody who's done it?

 

It might not work, but I sure would try to tighten the bolts a bit more.

 

I had used a gasket sealer paste and it still ended up seeping oil. But this is because I have polyurethane engine mounts and all engine movement is putting sheer force on the pan.

 

ThreeBond 1104, no gasket.

 

This is off-topic, but if you're going to have the oil pan out, and you ever race, or want to race your car, you might want to get a "fixed" oil pan from WMW. There are no dividers in the stock pan and if you are in a hard turn all the oil will drift to one side and leave your engine dry until you level out again. Just a thought, and I'm sorry I don't have any answers for you.

I would definitely not do a dry gasket though. I can't think of any reason that oiling the gasket would cause a leak. I have never changed my oil pan gasket, but I have used a lot of o-rings and dry=fail. Did you double-check you have the right gasket? I know that's a long shot, and I don't want to insult you, but I'm just throwing out ideas.

 

Thanks for the input everyone!

HRM: I would love to tighten the bolts a little more, but to get to two of them you need to remove the AC compressor and to do that. . . well I might as well replace the gasket again if I expose all the Oil Pan bolts.

Nabeshin: Thanks for the advice. I think I will end up trying this. And I still have the stock engine mounts so that lower motor mount shouldn't put as severe shear stress on the pan right? That is such a major design flaw I can't even begin to tell you. Before I do anything I'm gonna go down to Schomp MINI in Denver and speak to a service tech about this, because I'm gonna go down there anyways to purchase a new gasket. I'll let you guys know what they say. . .

Blackbomber: You did it with no gasket and threebond 1104 and it didn't leak at all? How many miles since then have you driven? And do you still have the stock motor mounts?

Act 04: Yeah I thought about gettin a baffled oil pan bofore and then I just never got around to ordering it. . . I think I might this time though. And yeah this is super frustrating because I did everything right! I was always tought to prep gaskets with a little bit of oil before installation to create the seal. . . And it was the same exact gasket and everything. I just don't know.

We'll see what the service tech's special trick is if they even have one about this. And don't worry guys i will definitely share with everyone!

 

I just had my engine rebuilt (entirely). Seems the Oil pan gasket is leaking (freaking new gasket anyway), it's being changed out on Wednesday. Any update to this thread would be helpful.
Cheers

 

Well Jamez, it seams I never got around to finishing my story....
I spoke with the guys at Schomp MINI and they said to do the gasket dry. So I cleaned it all up, installed gasket dry and torqued all the bolts to the sequence. It was good for about 2 weeks. Then it began seeping. I was pretty cross at this point so I just left it for a few months untill I had to do somethin else to my car. I made sure to check the dipstick every week. My radiator fan went out about 9 months ago so I figured it was time to take care of that dang gasket again, since the front of the car had to come apart anyways. This time, I tried it with silicone. Some stuff I picked up at napa I don't remember what it was exactly but I know I asked them for a silicone that is compatible with oil. I put silicone on each side of the gasket and again torqued it to spec with the sequence. And you know what happened? It just began to seep last month. It is not dripping yet, but let me tell you that is one stubborn gasket. Next time, I will be buying this sticky gasket maker that I used in A&P (aircraft technician) school for the job. What we did is we took this sticky stuff and painted it on both sides of the crank case. We then took thread and laid it down on the mating surface, two times around. And we sandwiched them together. Those things are notorious for leaking, and supposedly when you do it this way it won't. So that's what I'm gonna try next. It might be worth trying threebond 1104 with no gasket as listed above.

 

When you re-do it, also replace the crankshaft sensor o-ring at the front of the block
1) often it can drip down and mimic an oil pan gasket leak
2) if it's not leaking now, it will later eventually
3) it's easy to get to when you're already doing the pan

also, check that the crankshaft seal isn't leaking, less common than the oil pan gasket
or the o-ring, but it can happen.