97 cummins 5.9 - Shop telling me motor has to be pulled to change oil pan gasket?

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Joshinparadise

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Cummins 5.9
Hello all,

Need help with this too. I have an oil leak, and the shop that I have my truck serviced at says that they have to pull the motor to change the oil pan gasket... Is this true? Sounds preposterous, but maybe they're telling the truth...

Anyone know?

Thanks!

Josh
 

jlbayes

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It can be done without pulling the engine.
 

keganhensley

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You'll rarely find a shop willing to do a sneak it out method without charging you the full book time for the job


Sent from my LG-LS777 using Tapatalk
 

jlbayes

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I did mine myself so that was not an issue.
 
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Joshinparadise

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I did mine myself so that was not an issue.

Did you find instructions somewhere on how to do it or is there any resource you can point me to that would show the "sneak it out" method? Im very handy and have lots of tools, but by no means am I a mechanic. Is this something that someone other than a mechanic can attempt?

Thank you very much for your reply!!!

Josh
 

dudeman2009

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You can get the pan out pretty easy without pulling the engine, 4x4 makes it a bit harder but last I did one I just jacked up the frame until the suspension was as max travel. The sneak it out method is a bit harder than pulling it, in the sense that pulling it isn't hard just time consuming and you don't need to fight with anything.

If you're going to do it yourself, just understand what you're getting into. Doing a repair a way the repair wasn't designed to go. Its not for the uninitiated, jlbayes knows a lot (despite our occasional good hearted disagreements :favorites13: ) take what he says with a grain of salt, whats easy for him and whats easy for you may be two different things. If you're pretty good at problem solving I don't see any reason why you cant do it yourself, just give yourself a couple days to do it.
 

dapepper9

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5.9L V8
Oil pan gasket is a pretty simple process on any vehicle. The difficult part in changing them in 99.9% of the time just having access to it. If the pan is out in the open nice and accessible, pull bolts remove old gasket lay new gasket and maybe a little rtv application dependent and bolt it back up. But again, access is the problem. I personally haven't worked on the cummins oil pans or anything but being pretty familiar with 2nd gens in general i assume a crossmember is what the issue is. This can honestly be a real pain in the ass, even the v8s are like that, but very doable. Things like this take a little patience and work. One trick many do is loosen one of the engine mounts and remove the opposite one with a jack or engine crane supporting the engine. Then raise it up and now you have way more clearance
 

jlbayes

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I would not say this endeavor is easy by any stretch. It took me a couple hours to do it. Including fighting with getting one of the engine mounts back in the holder. Standing on the valve cover (24v) with a 4.5' long steel bar and a 10lb hand maul did the trick.

Ok so what I did was use an A-frame to lift the engine as high as I could. Hood has to come off. Unbolt the engine mounts (large bolts in the rubber mount). Valve cover was touching the under side of the wiper cowl. I did not disconnect any hoses. I did remove the clutch fan and shroud before lifting the engine. I worked as quickly as I could to get the pan out. Try to keep your hands out from between the block and cross member.

Is your truck an auto or manual? If it is a manual you will have a bit more trouble wiggling the pan out.

Are you 100% sure the pan is leaking? It is not a common point for these to leak. I compromised the gasket. Only reason I knew mine was leaking.
 
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Joshinparadise

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Truck is manual. It sat for 6 years unused on a ranch before I got it. Remarkably only has 120k miles on it and other than paint, it's in fantastic condition. The valve cover gaskets and oil pan gaskets dried up from lack of use and that is why (I theorize) why/how they cracked. I am positive that is where the leak is coming from.

After reading your post on how to do it, I've decided having the shop do it is money well spent. lol

Thanks!
 

jlbayes

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You are welcome and as I said....it wasn't easy.
 
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