I really f'ed this one up guys.

So I was jacking the car up to take a look at my front brakes. Wasn't paying attention like a moron and the jack slipped off the k-member, it must have gotten stuck and couldn't slide with the car. It fell towards the front of the engine and landed on the steering center link, which bent and put a big dent in my oil pan, about a 1/2" deep all the way across the oil pan. Spun the engine and the crank is definitely rubbing on the pan.

I know I need to drop the pan and hammer the dent out, if not replace the entire pan. What else should I check for while I'm down there? Is it possible the internals were damaged in the fall? How can I check for that?

As far as removing the oil pan, these are the steps, correct?

1. Jack up car, place jacks under a arms
2. Drain oil
3. Remove distributor cap
4. Turn crank to 6 o'clock
5. Unbolt motor from mounts
6. Jack up engine a few inches
7. Place wood blocks (where?)
8. Lower engine onto blocks

My center link is obviously bad now, what other components will I need to replace as well? The center link is the only piece that is visibly damaged, will the rest be okay.

This is obviously pretty embarrassing but hopefully yall can help me out and get me back on the road. Thanks for any help.

 

 

Is this a nice , being restored , possible future collectable , or a daily driver beatbox that we're just trying to get a few more miles outta ?

Cause if it's a nice car , then yes of course you'll want to take care of the pan the right way . If it's THAT nice , ya may want to just pick up a new pan cause it'll never look perfect once hammered back out anyway ......

BUT !!!!!

If we ARE talking a daily driver / grocery getter and looking to do this on the super cheap , I'd tack weld a few of the studs that can be grabbed with a dent puller to the smushed in area of the pan and pull the dent(s) out that way . Don't gotta look perfect , just gotta clear the crank .

 

The cars a very nice daily driver, used to be a show car before the guy gave the car to his wife. I would buy a new pan, but my plans are to eventually replace the motor for something with a little more oomph (mildly worked 305 TBI). I have a backup vehicle, so I can set aside a few days to work on it.

I would use the tack weld method, but I don't have a welder and I've only ever used a welder to make a Gerry can holder for my buddy's jeep. Not sure I could do it correctly even if I had one.

 

Got any friends who weld ?

Thing is , if you have no future long term plans for this oil pan (you mention wanting to replace the engine) then it's quite a bit of work to remove the pan to do it pretty for something that ain't long for the car anyway . The welding method takes literally minutes and for the relatively short time till you replace the engine how many are gonna notice how ugly it looks ?

Now if you do end up removing the pan , the wood blocks you mention in post one are to go in between the engine mounts and their mounting place on the frame , to hold the engine up while you remove the pan . Actually , you need 3 wood blocks , one for between the jack and oil pan , and two , which will go under each engine mount . The basic idea would be to first put the car up high enough on jackstands to get under . Then put the jack (with a block of wood between it and the oil pan !) under the oil pan and with everything needed to be unbolted and removed , lift the engine up . Then the wood blocks would go between the unbolted mounts and the frame so that when you remove the jack the engine stays in the raised up position . Now you remove/replace the pan , put the jack (with woodblock to keep from crushing/scratching your nice new pan) back under the pan , lift up just enough to pull the two woodblocks out from the engine mounts , and then lower the engine back down to where it belongs .

I wish you well with whatever method you choose

 

Thanks for the help! I'm a bit more confident now. I may just replace the oil pan since I can get a good deal on one and from what I'm reading, the baffle inside the oil pan may be a bent as well and I'm not sure I can fix that.

Should I replace any parts other than the center link while I'm at it? Idler, pitman? Obviously gonna need an alignment I assume.