WTH - another dent in the bottom of my oil pan!

[AR67GTX]

I spent most of the winter working on my 66 Satellite - swapping in power steering, adding Hurst shift rods to the Brewers replica Hurst shifter, adjusted the front brakes, and fixing a small, shallow dent in the oil pan - forgot the one hold down bolt on the left Hemi motor mount while trying to jack the motor to get the ex manifold in. I’ve only driven the car twice since getting it running - not much more than a few miles and I was under the car in between, snugging up the oil pan bolts just a month or so ago. Everything was good.

I backed it out today to install some blue stripe tires I had mounted on fresh, powder coated wheels. I looked under the car after pulling a front tire off and there’s a nice big ding/dent in the left, bottom side of the pan where something hard hit it, chipped paint and all, pushing the bottom of the oil pan up some. WTH! I haven’t dropped the car on a jack on anything under it. If I had I would have had to retrieve it from under there or noticed it when I backed out the car. The dents too far back from the crossmember for my jack I positioned under the Hemi k-member reinforcement plate to have come anywhere close to it. I don’t remember hitting anything on the road in the few miles I drove it. It would have made a pretty good noise I believe. It’s a mystery to me. Hate having a beat up oil pan on an otherwise clean car.

Very frustrating. So already I’m accumulating new projects for next winter.

Just venting

 

[wedgie]

I spent most of the winter working on my 66 Satellite - swapping in power steering, adding Hurst shift rods to the Brewers replica Hurst shifter, adjusted the front brakes, and fixing a small, shallow dent in the oil pan - forgot the one hold down bolt on the left Hemi motor mount while trying to jack the motor to get the ex manifold in. I’ve only driven the car twice since getting it running - not much more than a few miles and I was under the car in between, snugging up the oil pan bolts just a month or so ago. Everything was good.

I backed it out today to install some blue stripe tires I had mounted on fresh, powder coated wheels. I looked under the car after pulling a front tire off and there’s a nice big ding/dent in the left, bottom side of the pan where something hard hit it, chipped paint and all, pushing the bottom of the oil pan up some. WTH! I haven’t dropped the car on a jack on anything under it. If I had I would have had to retrieve it from under there or noticed it when I backed out the car. The dents too far back from the crossmember for my jack I positioned under the Hemi k-member reinforcement plate to have come anywhere close to it. I don’t remember hitting anything on the road in the few miles I drove it. It would have made a pretty good noise I believe. It’s a mystery to me. Hate having a beat up oil pan on an otherwise clean car.

Very frustrating. So already I’m accumulating new projects for next winter.

Just venting

Ever think about fabricating a skid plate?

 

[wedgie]

Ever think about fabricating a skid plate?

skid plate

Any pictures of a skid plate installed in and early B to protect the oil pan?

www.forbbodiesonly.com

 

[AR67GTX]

My Hemi k-frame has a skid plate of sorts already. This is driving me nuts. If I had the car on a jack and dropped it on something, it would have made a terrible noise driving off of it and it would be left there mangled to see. I only took it for a short, low speed, neighborhood drive of about 8 or 9 miles and if I had driven over something or kicked something up I think I would have heard/felt that. Errrrr!

 

[Fran Blacker]

Garage Gremlins !

 

[69 Sleeper Bee]

Got any kids that might "borrow" the car ?

 

[dadsbee]

Speed bump in the neighbourhood??

 

[DeltaV]

Drive across a railroad crossing? I've seen the ends of the "boards" kick upwards when tire(s) go across them.


***
Who is supposed to maintain those crossings anyway?

 

[ckessel]

Do you have kids? If so, maybe they snagged the keys and did a Dukes of Hazard imitation.

 

[AR67GTX]

No kids and the only speed bumps in the area are on streets that are strictly off limits to my old cars. I think on my last drive I went to Walmart to buy gas and probably rode over some of their underground tank fill ports that are usually mounded up a little, but not high enough to get up into the oil pan. I thought maybe I might have mis-clocked the pitman arm when installing it on the PS box but I went out and turned the wheel back and forth and nothing comes anywhere close to the dent. It’s on the left side/wall of the sump at about the mid-point. About the only way something could hit there is if I ran over something with the inside edge of my tire and it kicked it out sideways, up into the bottom edge of the sump. Oh well, not the first or second time I’ve had the pan off but those steel reinforced gaskets are getting expensive.

 

[AR67GTX]

Drive across a railroad crossing? I've seen the ends of the "boards" kick upwards when tire(s) go across them.


***
Who is supposed to maintain those crossings anyway?

Not that I remember crossing but I have a few short pieces of 2x6s in the garage I use for wheel chocks now and then. Maybe I forgot one and it got kicked under the car a little bit and spit out when the tire rolled over its edge.

 

[70Hemi-RR]

I went through a couple of deep sump pans until I finally made a skid plate from the K frame to the scatter shield bell housing. That put an end to that aggravating problem.

 

[AR67GTX]

This is just a stock, later Hemi model pan. It actually is higher than the k-frame skid plate. It could probably be pounded out and smoothed over but it’s got a pretty sharp crimp in the edge and the repros are pretty cheap. I know a lot of cars are running around with a lot worse but my OCD won’t allow it.

 

[Tony Tee]

Maybe get the oil pan from 440 source? They have one made out of thicker steel.

 

[AR67GTX]

Maybe get the oil pan from 440 source? They have one made out of thicker steel.

Just went and looked at them and think I will go in that direction. Never had so much trouble with oil pans and damage as I’ve had with this car. First one was my bad, but a mystery where this latest damage came from.

Thanks