hey, i didnt know where to post this so im posting it here. today was one of those days where if something can go wrong it will go wrong, im surprised i didnt get hit my a bus today. anyway... i was raising my car today with one of those regular jacks. i was raising it under the cross member. it started raining so i was kinda rushing, i had to quickly re-attach my underbody neon kit because the holder things snapped on the way home. anyway while raising the jack i realized it wasnt sitting well under the cross member, i told my friend to run and get the horses incase the car fell, as soon as he got back with the horses the car slipped and what happened was the steering bar thing that goes accross the front of the car hit the jack and the bar went straight up into the oil pan. now luckily it didnt crack the oil pan, but it dented it pretty nicely. when i started the car i heard a grinding noise. what i believe happened is the pan is rubbing against something in there. does anybody know what it might be? and what am i sopposed to do?? i guess my best guess would be removing the oil pan, and having the big dent poped out. is it bad to drive the car the way it is? (dont worry i havent driven it), and if i do have to remove the oil pan how hard is this going to be? its a 92 305 tbi. i really need advice. thanks.

 

What part of the oil pan is the dent?

 

DO NOT DRIVE IT!!!!!!! It dosent matter what part of the pan is dented if it is making a noise that it didnt make before it got dented then there is a problem and you will need to get the dent out of it... Depending on what part of the pan got hit i would guess it is hitting the crankshaft and that is not good at all that will def rip some stuff up real quick not to mention the crankshaft wil wear a hole in the oil pan..... get that thing fixed and do not run the car until it is fixed or you will have a blown 305 and you will be swapping in a 350... not that, that would be a bad thing but ya know im sure you dont have the 3 or 4 grand to spare.

 

yes it is hitting the crankshaft so don't drive it till you get the pan fixed or replaced.

 

if its a grinding and not a clunking its probably the oil pump hittin it inside

 

its not a grinding, its a clunking. like like something knocking. i drove the car accros the street to park it in my driveway, it was on no longer than 30 seconds. could i have caused damaged? it doesnt sound like its hitting hard, but it seems like its touching just enough to make a clunking sound. let me know thanks,

 

Look on the bright side, at least you weren't caught underneath the car when it slipped of the jack!

Dented Oil pan = annoying

Grinding noise = Very bad

Price of new engine = @()#*$&@(*#&%(*&@#(*%&@(*#%&(@*#^&)@$&^)(@#*^&@&#^%)

Price of your life = THANK YOU ***! *prays some more*

 

If the dent is in the front it is the crankshaft.Well in the short distance that you drove it it shouldn't(but possible) have hurt anything but you do want to get that fixed asap,then drive.

 

well, one thing my dad always teaches me is never get under the car unless the horses are supporting. but im really pissed this happened, and if i damaged any interior parts im not going to know what to do, so hopefully its no damage... how do i get the oil pan of?

 

I had to jack the engine up (BE CAREFUL... The jack slipped on me and almost amputated my friggin finger). Kinda stupid, but it seemed secure. You could also pull it up from above with an engine hoist. You'll also need to take off your starter and most likely drop your y-pipe down. It'll take all the prying in the world, and you'll use every last 4-letter word there is, but you'll eventually get it off. I've heard doing the job on a lift is MUCH easier. I will never even attempt to do it on the ground again, WAYYYyyyy too much of a pain. Good luck.

 

The same exact thing happened to me about 8 years ago. Same exact spot, same exact noise. we lucked out and we were able to straighten the oil pan out with a 2x4 and a sledge hammer, i would recommend a new pan though.

 

unfortunatly all this is pushing me towards a michanic ... yes i hate not doing my own work. im going to scout the prices, and i hope its not over some hundered. what you guys think it will cost?

 

hey jim, thanks for the reply. my e-mail address is Dozer80464@aol.com.. i wana ask you a few questions if you dont mind responding by e-mail. i wanted to know... did you damage the crank, i turned my engine on for a few sec. then turned it off. do you think i caused any damage? any other advice would be great. thanks.

 

Here is the precaution I include in all the products I sell that require jacking the car to install. It is in BOLD red font.

CAUTION: WHEN WORKING UNDER A CAR, ALWAYS BE AWARE THAT THERE IS A HEAVY VEHICLE ABOVE YOU. REGARDLESS OF LIFTING METHOD USED, THE REAR WHEELS SHOULD BE CHOCKED OR BLOCKED. TRANSMISSION IN PARK (IF AUTOMATIC) OR REVERSE (IF MANUAL) AND PARKING BRAKE SET. THE VEHICLE SHOULD BE ON A LEVEL SURFACE SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT THE JACK AND JACK STANDS OR RAMP. A CONCRETE SURFACE IS PREFERABLE TO AN ASPHALT ONE. ASPHALT WILL SOFTEN WITH HEAT AND COULD ALLOW THE JACK, JACK STAND OR RAMP TO SETTLE. NEVER RELY SOLELY ON A HYDRAULIC JACK TO SUPPORT THE VEHICLE. LIFT THE VEHICLE WITH THE JACK, THEN USE JACK STANDS TO SUPPORT THE VEHICLE. REFER TO THE OWNER’S MANUAL FOR THE JACK STANDS OR RAMPS FOR FURTHER CAUTIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS.

Now you kow why.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

The first time I had to get underneath my TransAm to get the down pipes off it took me nearly 30 minutes of pushing the car from each side of it, trying to get it to move in the slightest. In the end it didn't move at all, and was pretty solid. The two jack stands worked well, the choks, and the parking brake made me feel pretty safe.

Your right though, I did use just about every expletive I knew when trying to get those two bolts off of each down pipe. Plus the car is still apart as I needed to get the heads off, only to find a cracked block beneath it. :*(

Its gonna take me till Febuary to get a new engine in that car. It had been sitting for over a year before I bought it. But the body is in great shape. The interior upholstry and carpet are in great shape too. No tears on the seats or anything, no stains, was non smoker car. Still has that stupid Van Nuy's paint job though, faded beyond all belief.

 

If you just dented it and didn't run it much, most likely you didn't do any internal damage. The knocking sound you here is the counter-weight on the crank hitting the oil pan. The most you could have done it bent or broke the pick-up on the oil pump, depending on where you dented it. I know JB Weld isn't the greatest thing in the world, but it works for little applications that don't have to hold up against much. It's a ghetto fix I know, but it'll get you by for now without having to replace the oil pan right away. Drain the oil and then with a dent puller (or slide-hammer), pull the dent out of the pan and then put some weld on it. Easy as that. No fighting with the motor, and the weld should hold up for quite some time. Just make sure you clean the surface really well and replace the pan when you get a chance.

 

I dented the oil pan on a semi the other day at work while changing the motor mounts and it was hitting the crank. what we did was weld a 7/16" nut to the oil pan and threaded a piece of threaded rod into it. then drilled a hole in a piece of angle iron and put it under the springs with the threaded rod through the hole. but it should work under the front frame rails or something lower than the oil pan on your car. we then threaded a nut on to the threaded rod pulling the dent out of the oil pan.
it worked great and i didn't have to fill any holes or take the oil pan off. the oil pan on the semi wasn't anything different than a car oil pan just a lot bigger.
i hope this helps. it saved me a bunch of work. you could even find a shop willing to try it and it should be alot cheaper than an oil pan.

 

So you welded a nut to the bottom of an oil pan that was ON an engine? Even if the oil was drained, that sounds like a major no-no....

 

Sounded like a good idea to me... why is that a no-no? Its not like it will blow up... and if it did, what would it hurt? After all, it IS an internal combustion engine.

 

LOL, dude. How would it not blow up, or at least catch on fire. Just becuase its an internal combusion engine doesnt mean the entire thing is supposed to combust

 

hey,, is the oil pan that they sell at autozone for $45 perfectly compatible with our cars? even though its generic??

 

theres always the junk yards, pretty easy to just replace the oil pan.

 

gotta listen to him on this one, his name is panman .

 

Hes right, common sense tells you this is dangerous but it really isnt, if you know your welding stuff it can be done.

I work as a mechanic for a garbage truck company and when stuff happens like drain bolts stripping or busted we weld on a big fat a$$ed nut onto the old plug and bam it can be removed with a big a$$ed wrench . We do this on oil pans, trans pans, axles or whatever...

 

may sound silly ...try a body shop if the dent is not so bad ..they have a thing called an "easy beat " (well thats its name in aus)
kinda like a small spot welder that attaches to metal with a small slide hammer attached .......a heap easier than dropping the pan off IF it can be done that way ...........hope that helps

 

i dont think it can be done that way because theres a baffle in the oil pan. even if the dent is pulled the metal baffle inside is still dented... am i wrong?

 

the baffle may still be jacked up, you never said where the dent was, considering it hit something on your steering, its on the front. the baffle should be towards the back. Moroso sells a pan made for a sb chevy in a 3rd gen, but its a 6 qt. if you just pull the dent like everyone is saying, you need to check your oil psi right away to make sure you didnt jack up your pump or pickup, if the dents on the back of the pan. really though, a new pan would be better. and that means lifting the engine. depending, you shouldnt have to unbolt the tranny but then again, you may have to. i would plan on atleast 4 hours if you had a mechanic do it, and at 50 bucks an hour, plus a new pan, it may get costy.

 

Just replace the freakin pan and do the work yourself. This really ain't that bigga deal. We all do stupid ****.

 

to be honest with you, if it wasnt already cold out and the weather wasnt so bad i would do it. but i cant work when the weather is so crappy. i have a guy willing to do it for $200 and i supply the new pan. thats what im doing.

 

Can't blame ya there. I dread working under the car in cold weather. Makes busted knuckles hurt worse.

 

exactly!