Oil pan gasket

[Vibelo]

I have to replace mine. I have read that the pan does not take a gasket. But the auto parts store sells the gasket. Any thoughts? What should go with? The gasket or sealant? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[joatmon]

I had the same question at one point. For some reason, I bought the gasket and tried to use it. Perhaps it was my decision to apply silicone sealant to both sides of the gasket, and when even with only hand tightening the pan bolts, the gaskets swam around and slid out of place. Just looking at it I could tell it would never properly seal. So I took it off, cleaned up the block and pan surfaces, and put the pan on with no gasket, only silicone sealant (I used the orange hi temp stuff) The pan never leaked after that. Maybe the gasket would have worked dry, but I didn't like the idea of that, and didn't want to buy another to find out.

My advice is to skip the gasket, save your money, just use a sealant. That was good enough for the factory,

After scraping off all the old sealant from the block and pan, I used brake cleaner to make sure the mating surfaces were completely oil free before putting it back together

[lannvouivre]

I used some Ultra Copper RTV. An actual gasket can be hard to line up properly anyway, and running the sealant bead can be kind of fun. Just be sure to surround the bolt holes (so don't do this job while drunk, basically.)

[ColonelPanic]

When my mechanic replaced the oil pan, he had originally acquired the gasket as well. But in the end, he installed it with goo only, just like how it left the factory. It's been about 2 years, no leaks.