Oil Pan Damage Question.

[Slo5Oh89]

I have some damage on my pan in the picture below. This happened couple years ago and has gotten worse. BUT my friend had a good point of not seeing any scraping on the bracing under (And its a Convertible). I put a new front sump drain plug in the other day drive for 10 miles look at it and it is damaged looks like it scraped. I do not see where my car scraps coming out of driveway or anything.

Any Ideas? Thought I would ask the experts....

BTW. I have new front Springs, Struts, MM Caster Camber Plates, MM Strut Tower Brace going on soon.

 

[ratio411]

Parking curb contact?

Not likely, but just a guess...
That's the only thing I can think of that would hit the forward parts, but not the bracing.
But it seems to me that this part of the oil pan is higher that the radiator support???

 

[boostfrk]

I had a very similar issue before. The PO had put aftermarket sway bar bushings in for the front sway bar and didn't re-use the OEM brackets, he used the brackets that came with the aftermarket bushings. This changed the geometry of the sway bar travel and caused it to hit the oil pan in nearly the exact same location as shown in your picture. The pan was dented (or still is) and it would hit the front drain plug also.

I swapped everything back out for new aftermarket bushings with the stock OEM brackets and all is well now. Sway bar clears the oil pan with plenty of room.

 

[Slo5Oh89]

Before I changed the sway bar bushings I was having this issue but that is interesting. I reused everything but the bushing when I attached it back. But I could take the sway bar off drive a little and see. Could bad suspension be an issue?

No swaybar for a short time wont hurt anything right?

 

[Slo5Oh89]

So the Sway Bar can move upward that much? This was also a issue before I changed the bushings. I will pull it off and look for signs of rubbing when I upgrade the front suspension

 

[boostfrk]

No sway bar won't hurt anything. A lot of guys take it off for drag racing anyways. To be safe, I wouldn't try to take any corners like you're part of Moto Grand Prix. I ran without one for several weeks while I was looking for some replacement OEM brackets and never had any issues.

The stock sway bar bracket is "taller", for lack of a better term, and keeps the sway bar further down towards the ground so that when it roates towards the oil pan it will clear the oil pan and swing below it. The OEM brackets have about a 1" gap between the surface that mounts to the frame rail and the bracket into which the bushing mounts. This extra 1 inch is what makes the difference. The aftermarket brackets don't have that gap and therefore bring the sway bar higher up, casuing it to hit the oil pan swing it travels through it's range of motion.

If you have to locate some OEM brackets I didn't have any luck finding any online through the restoration companies. Your best bet is to find a pair from the junkyard or someone that has removed their sway bar because they drag race the car. You don't have to get V8 specific brackets either; I pulled some from a 4 cyl and they worked fine. The bracket is identical between the 4cyl and V8. The difference is the hole in the bushing into which the sway bar sits; it's smaller on the 4cyl to accomodate the smaller diameter sawy bar.

 

[Slo5Oh89]

boostfrk - Thanks for the help. I am pretty sure I used the stock brackets but I will dig in my old parts box to verify. I will also drop the sway bar off inspect it then drive and see if the plug gets damaged. I will take pictures of the brackets on there when I get home.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

When you pop it off and drive it make sure you take some chalk or if you want to spray paint the damaged area so you can see if there is still contact going on. You'd think there would be a lot of noise being made during contact with the oil pan and drain plug.

Good luck.

 

[Slo5Oh89]

Well I did find evidence where sway bar was hitting drain plug. It is very close when weight is on the front. Still looks like I used stock brackets.