1966 Riviera oil pan removal

[Guest hiyudon]

Hello All,

Are there any tricks to removing the oil pan on a '66 Riviera (425 engine)? Just got this car running and want to change the gasket. Most cars I've had to raise the engine an inch or two.

Thank you in advance.

Don

[68RIVGS]

Don't really know about the '66 425 Don, but that's how it gets done on a '68 430 !!

[Seafoam65]

How many miles does the car have on it? If the car has it's original timing chain and gears those need to be replaced

to get rid of the aluminum gear with plastic teeth and the loose chain it will have, requiring removal of the timing cover as well. If that

is the case, I'd yank the motor and do the whole job on an engine stand and take the opportunity to do a nice repaint on the engine.

Pulling engines on 60's cars is so easy you could have it out and on a stand in an hour and a half, and you can do a lot better job

of installing the gaskets with the engine upside down on a stand because you won't have to deal with oil running down on the pan rails faster than you can wipe it off.

[60FlatTop]

The frame is the same X-type as my '64. I have dropped my pan. I would take the engine out if I had to do it again and work needed to be done inside.

You have to raise the engine 4-6" so the mounts and exhaust need to be loose. Watch out for bending the transmission cooling lines and the fan shroud.

You will need 1/4" drive sockets to get the four pan bolts over the crossmember.

The steering linkage needs to be dropped and I remember removing the starter.

Once the pan drops you may have to rotate the crank to snake it out of there.

The job is not a pia, its a PIA with caps.

Bernie

[68RIVGS]

. . . you mean a royal P-I-T-A Bernie !!

[RivNut]

. . . you mean a royal P-I-T-A Bernie !!

Randy,

Don't you mean R-O-Y-A-L

Don,

Think of pulling the engine as a good excuse to detail the firewall and inner fenders and repaint the engine while it's suspended from an hoist.

Ed

Is there a misplaced modifier in Randy's original quote? "... P-I-T-A Bernie." Surely we're not into name calling here. LOL

Edited October 10, 2014 by RivNut (see edit history)

[Guest hiyudon]

The car only has 96000 miles on it. It was my nephews and it's been sitting in dry storage for eight years. I got it fired up and it sounds great. There's a lot of oil gunk on the pan below typical of that era car. That's why I want to change all the do-able gaskets and see what happens. I agree with you.... if it had excessive miles, I'd just rebuild the engine,but I think the mileage is not that bad.

Thanks for the tips.

Don

[60FlatTop]

That is a lot of miles for a car with a carburetor and no overdrive. Those are the two things that have brought us the 200,000 and 300,000 miles cars we have today. Sitting for 8 years can be fine if proper steps were taken to ready it for storage. If it was just shut off and left without a fresh oil change the acids in the oil can corrode a couple of thousandths off the bearing surfaces and the pistons that were low in their bores can have stuck rings giving low compression. If the temperature and humidity varied during storage the mass of the metal temperature changed can cause rust or condensation collection on vented surfaces. Rusted cylinders on the ones with open valves and water collecting in the rear end housing. None of that is good.

Get the safety stuff working, increase your triple A towing insurance and see what breaks.

I wouldn't recommend pulling covers and scraping crud of the inside. That just loosens up chunks that can plug passages.

It is like a post grad college course in cars, with equivalent credit hour tuition.

Bernie

[Turbinator]

On 10/10/2014 at 9:15 AM, 60FlatTop said:

The frame is the same X-type as my '64. I have dropped my pan. I would take the engine out if I had to do it again and work needed to be done inside.

You have to raise the engine 4-6" so the mounts and exhaust need to be loose. Watch out for bending the transmission cooling lines and the fan shroud.

You will need 1/4" drive sockets to get the four pan bolts over the crossmember.

The steering linkage needs to be dropped and I remember removing the starter.

Once the pan drops you may have to rotate the crank to snake it out of there.

The job is not a pia, its a PIA with caps.

Bernie

Bernie, I'm sure my oil pan is leaking a tad bit. The underside of the oil pan and surrounding area is wet with oil. I've seen a lot worse. After reading what you've said about taking the oil pan down to remove the cover I'm not so sure I want to do the job. Now, I do have a lift and that should make it easier. I just hate to have to loosen all the exhaust, motor mounts, etc. etc. etc.

i was going to have the transmission fluid and filter changed by a highly reliable shop close by.

Red Riviera Bob

[RivNut]

Sorry, to get the pan off a nailhead, you need to pull/raise the engine.  Or take an acetylene torch to the front crossmember. Jacking up just the front of the engine also puts a lot of stress on the transmission mount, and if you're not careful, you can crack the distributor.  Buy a drip tray and keep adding fluids. It's a lot cheaper in the long run.  Nailheads have been leaking since 1953.

Edited September 9, 2017 by RivNut (see edit history)

[KongaMan]

I don't remember that it was that big of a deal to pull the motor from the RIv -- but I wouldn't do it just to change a gasket.  If it gets too bad, you might consider running a bead of weld around the perimeter of the pan.

 

If you do decide to jack up the motor, it would be a wonderful time to remove and inspect your motor mounts.  It's remarkable how much more smoothly the car will run with good mounts.  And while it's up, you might also clean the top of the cross member.

 

As far as the tranny flush goes...  My experience that one of two things happens at Biff's Garage:

- They drop the pan, change the filter, refill, and call it done.  Of course, this only gets a fraction of the old fluid.

- They hook it up to a reverse flush machine.

 

I'd suggest there may be a better way (it certainly works on some other transmissions): 

- Disconnect the transmission cooler pressure line at the cooler.

- Blow some low pressure air through the cooler to flush all the fluid from the cooler and return line.

- Drop the pan, drain the fluid, change the filter, and reinstall.  Measure how much fluid you drained.

- Attach some clear tubing to the disconnected line and put the end in a bucket.

- Fill the transmission with the same amount of fluid you just drained.

- Start the engine and shift back and forth through the gears a few times.  You've got a Dynaflow, so make sure you do low as well as drive and reverse.

- As the old fluid is pumped into the bucket, pour more in the filler tube.

- Shut off the engine when you see bright red fluid coming out of the cooler line.

- Reconnect the cooler line, start the car, and top off the fluid after the cooler and return line get filled.

 

The theoretical advantage of this is that it uses the transmission's own pump to do the flushing, so you don't have to worry blowing out a seal or something.  You also (hopefully) flush the torque converter, which is something the quickie "flushes" don't do.  If you're worried about that, you can always drain the torque converter along with the pan.

 

I just did this the other day for the cost of 3 gallons of fluid.  I got lucky because that particular vehicle had an auxiliary cooler so had easy access to cooler lines.  (It also had a drain plug on the pan, which helps.)  It took less than an hour.

Edited September 9, 2017 by KongaMan (see edit history)