Oil pan tighten

[Kibokojoe]

Discovered an oil leak coming from the pan gasket. Discovered many of the bolts were loose. The pan has a paper gasket so I tightened the bolts to 44 inch pounds and the leak has stopped.

[yaofeng]

M6 bolts should be tightened to 10 N.m, or 88 in-lb.

[Ken35i]

Yeah, I've read in a few places the sump pans bolts come loose on the M30. I had, I think, 2 bolts MISSING from my pan before I replaced the gasket. Then used new bolts (not nessesary) and Loctite (nessesary).

Keep an eye on those bolts, purhaps every oil change check them.

[e34.535i.sport]

Thanks Ken, you've just motivated me to check mine. How much of a pain is it to change the gasket?

[Kibokojoe]

Changing out the pan gasket on a M30 is a nightmare. Or at least that is what I have heard. From what I have read on this forum you don't even want to go there.

[e34.535i.sport]

Changing out the pan gasket on a M30 is a nightmare. Or at least that is what I have heard. From what I have read on this forum you don't even want to go there.

Yeah I thought that was the case... I'll check the bolts anyway - the gasket will be fine (said while crossing fingers)....(and toes)

[Ken35i]

I did it by pulling the engine out entirely and I replaced every other gasket at the same time.
There's no way, I can think of, to change the sump gasket via minimum work. The only way is to unbolt the enigine from it's mounts and gearbox, take off the expansion tank, fan shroud, drain oil and unbolt the oil cooling hoses from radiator, drain and unbolt the power steering hoses, unbolt the injector wiring harness, unbolt headers from exhaust (especially fun because of siezed/rusted bolts) and maybe a coolant hose here and there (ie drain cooling system). Then lift the engine high enough to get the sump out from between the engine and crossmember and because of it's length the 'tray' under the radiator will block your path. As Kibojoeko said it's a nightmare.

If you do manage to change you sump gasket DON'T use cork. It's a pain in the butt to work with, especially when you need to use contact cement to bond it to the sump.

If you were to do this make it worth it, change all the gaskets/seals.

If anyone has a better way let us know, make some lives just a bit easier :/

Edit: Actually I've heard of dropping the crossmember method. Would be less work I'd imagine. But you would have to prop up the steering box and the engine itself of course.

[gale]

Changing out the pan gasket on a M30 is a nightmare. Or at least that is what I have heard. From what I have read on this forum you don't even want to go there.

We just did the pan gasket on my son's 89 535i and it was very straight forward. We suspended the engine from above and removed the sub-frame since we replaced the motor mounts and entire front control arms & tie-rods at the same time. Easy job, just a bit involved at most. Without the subframe in the way, the pan drops straight down. Very easy to put back on with a new gasket without the gasket sliding around. I only wish a composite metal/rubber gasket like the m50 was available for the m30. My choices were paper and rubberized cork. I used cork with Permatex Aviation cement.

I'll be doing the same job on my 735i soon since it's leaking as well and has been tightened a few times too many. I want to drop the pan anyway so I can drill & tap an oil return directly in the block for the turbo.