Oil pan gasket positioning

[SQUIRMIN VERMIN 84]

Fel Pro's new one-piece oil pan gasket is pretty slick! A long over-due product! IMHO anyway. Included in the kit were 4 plastic rods to screw into the two 5/16" pan bolt holes in the block that straddle the rear main bearing cap and the two at the front bearing. They were to support the gasket against the block and also act as guides for the pan to slip over the rods and cozy up to the gasket while you started the pan bolts along each side of the pan. However, my '84 block has 5/16" studs there, so I couldn't use the plastic rods.

After a trip to my local hardware store, I used four 1/4x20 threaded rods in the block holes next-in-line to the studs though. I cut the rods 1 1/4" long for the front and 2 1/2" long for the rear holes. The gasket slid over the studs and then I used a "hairpin" clip to clip onto each rod and hold the gasket snug up to the block. The clips make a nice positive lock on the rod threads. I was then able to adjust the fit and seal of the gasket.



I then slid the oil pan over the threaded rods and up to the clips and then start a pan bolt into the block on each side to hold the pan in place. After that the clips can be extracted from the rods with a quick flip of a screwdriver, the rods unscrewed and the rest of the pan bolts started and torqued.



I'm sure there are other methods and you can use more than 4 studs in the case of the old cork-style gaskets, but this worked out well for me on the fly..

As long as you have the pan off-change out that old timing chain and sprocket set! Tip here for old eyes - use some dayglow paint to accent the cam timing marks before installing new sprockets....easier to line up if lighting ain't all that great!