[SuperDutyTrooper]

Decided to install the Moroso pn 27293 oil pan gasket last weekend, to correct a very minor oil seepage problem I noticed at the front and rear of a used/rebuilt engine I’m in the process of swapping into my F250. Below is the process I used, note that all of this was done on an engine that was out of the truck, upright on a stand (not flipped over).

1. Used a single edge razor blade to cut into the old silicone all the way around, then carefully hammered in a gasket scraper in various locations, using it as a pry tool until the pan finally came loose (see first pic).

2. Removed most of the old silicone from both the block and the pan with a single edge razor blade, then did final cleanup with a wire wheel on a drill for the pan, and with a small stainless steel wire brush for the block. Wiped everything down with paint thinner and/or brake cleaner (my two favorite solvents), then blew out the pan with compressed air to make sure all silicone particles were gone.

3. Screwed the supplied studs into the block with blue Loctite, leaving slightly over 3/4" sticking out of the block as per Moroso instructions.

4. Put a small amount of silicone on the block at the 4 corners where the block matches up to the front and rear covers, as per Moroso instructions.

5. Installed the gasket onto the block. The gasket has metal inserts in the holes to prevent over-tightening – these also help to hold the gasket on the block as they are very tight on the studs, so tight that I had to use a socket to hammer the gasket onto the stud in a couple of places.

6. Put a small amount of silicone on the bottom of the gasket at the 4 corners per Moroso instructions, then attached the pan to the gasket using the 12 supplied 1/2" nuts and tightening to 10 ftlbs. Note that I tightened only to 10 even tho the instructions say 12-15 for reason below in my observations.

Observations
A. First, the thick blue gasket looks really nice and complements my Ford Blue color scheme, you know that’s important!:lol:

B. Since the pan is about 1/4" thick, and when you tighten the nuts it slightly bends the pan at the tightening points, and kind of pooches the gasket out as well at those points – you might be able to see this if you look closely at the second pic. Because of this, I loosened the nuts a bit to 10 lbs, instead of the 12-15 recommended, and I think I am now going to try to correct this by inserting a piece of ¾” by 2 ft long flat stock drilled at the stud locations and attached between the nuts and the pan. If this works to even out the holding pressure of the nuts as I think it will, I will suggest to Moroso that they include this part in their gasket kit in the future!

C. Since the pan is ¼ inch lower, I had difficulty re-attaching the dipstick tube to the valve cover bolt. This may also have been partly due to my bending of the tube a bit as I was forcing it into the new oil pan flange that I installed at the same time, but it does make sense that your tube will not fit in the same place without some re-bending since the pan is slightly lower. In my case, I decided to make a short extension to attach to the dipstick bracket, which you can see in the third pic.

D. I’m sure the dipstick will no longer be completely accurate either, so I plan to scribe it after I fill up and run the engine with the required 15 quarts.

E. Lastly, this job would be extremely difficult to do with the engine in the truck. I don’t see how you could remove all the silicone – which is required to prevent leaks per the instructions – without filling up your pan with silicone scraps if the engine was still in. And don’t even think of removing the pan without removing the engine (as I’m sure everyone knows) - no matter how far you may be able to jack it up, the oil pickup tube extends so far into the very deep pan it will prevent pan removal.

 

[RT]

Man, those are some nasty looking exhaust manifolds! Kidding - everything else looks so good, those things stand out like a sore thumb. Here's the solution - Factory Gray Hi-Temp Coating

Thanks for the report on the pan gasket. I've been wanting to try it. Looks great.

 

[klhansen]

Wait, you forgot to paint the heater hose fittings!!

Nice looking job.

I'm not sure I'd go with the Moroso gasket after seeing it. Looks basically like a big fat chunk of silicone, so why not just use the Ford Silicone and stick the pan on?

 

[SuperDutyTrooper]

Wait, you forgot to paint the heater hose fittings!!

Nice looking job.

I'm not sure I'd go with the Moroso gasket after seeing it. Looks basically like a big fat chunk of silicone, so why not just use the Ford Silicone and stick the pan on?

My primary reason for not using the Ford silicone is that this is a motor supposedly rebuilt only 10k miles ago (I say supposedly because I got it on Craigslist) and the recently applied (I assume) Ford silicone was already leaking.

Second, I believe you have to turn the block upside down to apply the silicone. That wouldnt be so bad if it was just a shortblock, but with the heads and a few accessories on it, this is one heavy block that I just dont want to rotate the motor and suspend from only the rear bolts. Plus the fact that this motor probably still has some fluids in it which I'm not sure where they would go. I have some upright supports that I built that are attached to the motor mounts which hold it very securely upright.

Last, I like the look of it! Dont be hating on the fat silicone:wink2:. I just hope it seals well, and I wont know that part for a while yet.

 

[SuperDutyTrooper]

UPDATE: I did try to use some flat metal to even out the tightening pressure from the oil pan nuts as mentioned in item B above, however, the damage to the pan had already been done, so this did not really help. I removed the pan, straightened the bend points by hammering them flat, and although I could have tried again using the flat metal I spent a lot of time fabricating, I decided to follow KL Hansen’s advice and use the factory Ford TA31 sealant instead. I didn’t turn the engine upside down to apply it as is recommended, but since this engine has been sitting on a stand for 8 months, I think the risk of oil contamination before the sealant cures is low and I should be OK. The engine is now installed in the truck (startup attempt soon, cross yer fingers!), and a pic of the final sealant application is attached.

I just did not get a good feeling that the Moroso gasket was going to provide me with a reliable seal, and after using the TA31 sealant and observing how unbelievably super-sticky this product actually is, I’m happy I went with the factory method, and I cannot recommend the Moroso gasket. Now I’m stuck with an $80 gasket I will not use and wont even bother to try to return – anyone want to buy a used Moroso 7.3 oil pan gasket?

 

[SuperDutyTrooper]

An update to this post, almost 7 years after I started it.

I’m happy I went with the factory method, and I cannot recommend the Moroso gasket.

The above was a big mistake. As others have told me, you do need to follow the factory instructions of turning the block upside down if you use the factory silicone and want it to seal. Despite the fact that my used engine sat for probably a week with the pan off, I did not get a good seal and the pan leaked the entire time from when I installed the engine in 2015 until I removed it a few weeks ago, i.e, 7 years. I probably had a great seal when I first installed the Moroso gasket, and what a huge mistake it was to remove it.

But that was a problem I decided to change and after seeing a couple of videos on YouTube where people had done the Moroso gasket install with the engine in the truck, I decided to try it.

At first I tried the method in the videos, which was to remove cab bolts, jack up the body, remove a few other connections, then jack up the engine and transmission as a whole unit and pull off the pan out of the back. Even after unbolting the pickup tube, the pan would not clear the bell housing of the transmission, and that is when I realized that possibly the reason this worked for the you-tubers was that they had automatic transmissions which have a bevel at the bottom of the bell housing; a manual transmission as I have does not, and made removal with the transmission on impossible.

So next it was transmission, clutch and flywheel removal with all the additional steps that entails. After all of this, as well as raising the engine as high as i could get it in the engine compartment with my engine hoist, the pan came out - BUT JUST BARELY! You will still have to unbolt the oil pickup tube (one bracket bolt at the back, and two connecting bolts at the front, which are difficult to get to with just the pan hanging), and even with the pick up tube unbolted, the front corners of the pan still scraped the front bearing cap bolts on it's way out.

And don’t even think of removing the pan without removing the engine (as I’m sure everyone knows)

.
So I am here to say that statement above is incorrect, and pan removal with the engine in the truck is indeed possible as shown in the first pic below - BUT - it is pretty close to the amount of work to just go ahead and pull the engine. Of course, I did not have to remove the turbo, the radiator, the intercooler, the heater hose, the headlights, the front support, any engine accessories or drain and refill the air conditioner, which are time consuming steps, but other than that it was pretty much the same as full engine removal.

I am now highly recommending the Moroso gasket, and am happy I have one again/now - no more leaks!

When I installed, I also purchased some Chevy small block valve cover gasket hold-down, drilled the holes in them out to 5/16" and installed them under the oil pan nuts to spread the pressure a bit. I also spent the money on one of those expensive Driven Diesel dipstick adapters - you can see both of these in the second pic.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

I would NEVER use that gasket.

 

[SuperDutyTrooper]

I would NEVER use that gasket.

Obviously, your opinion. One that you give no reasons for.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

I’ve had a handful of jobs to pull the engine and that gasket.
Where I’ve seen leaks from people RTV siliconing them, it was from one or more of the following reasons:
Did not have the surfaces prepped properly.
Did not have the engine flipped and surface got contaminated.
Did not get the RTV in a caulk tube and did not get it applied and the pan installed within 4 or 5 minutes.
Did not apply about 10% more RTV by amount to the front and rear when laying down the bead.
Had a hard time physically lifting a big, heavy, awkward pan and lowering it down gently and evenly, alone.

 

[SuperDutyTrooper]

I’ve had a handful of jobs to pull the engine and that gasket.
Where I’ve seen leaks from people RTV siliconing them, it was from one or more of the following reasons:
Did not have the surfaces prepped properly.
Did not have the engine flipped and surface got contaminated.
Did not get the RTV in a caulk tube and did not get it applied and the pan installed within 4 or 5 minutes.
Did not apply about 10% more RTV by amount to the front and rear when laying down the bead.
Had a hard time physically lifting a big, heavy, awkward pan and lowering it down gently and evenly, alone.

As in many of your posts, your comments make absolutely no sense . . . what are you talking about? It appears you are referring to incorrect application of the factory Ford TA-31 sealant, or maybe another type of silicone sealant.

THIS POST, however, is about the one-piece Moroso gasket, so your comments above are COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT! Please stick to the topic at hand, and if you have some support for your "I would NEVER use that gasket" comment above (I am assuming "that gasket" refers to the Moroso), please share! Your comments so far have been the exact opposite, as they are actually RECOMMENDATIONS and/or reasons for using the Moroso gasket instead of a sealant.

Also:

Had a hard time physically lifting a big, heavy, awkward pan and lowering it down gently and evenly, alone

Seriously? Big, maybe (that is a relative term), but heavy and awkward, particularly with the engine out and upside down? Yeah, I don't think so. Unless you are a small child, then yes.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

Makes perfect sense.
I wrote that I’ve had to pull a handful of engines to replace Moroso gaskets because of them leaking.
I went onto explain the reasons why people who have failures RTVing the pans.
By all means use it if that is what you choose to do.

 

[panhead george]

I had the Moroso gasket on my truck. I recently pulled the engine, for other problems, not related to the oil pan. I bought a new moroso gasket. When I was ready to install the oil pan, I decided to use the T442 sealant instead of the Moroso gasket.

 

[VWrabbitdiesel1982]

@panhead george , so if engine is out use the gasket and sealer? With engine in use the international gasket silicone sealer? I do a couple people that used the international sealer with engine in truck , one had a small leak. I would think the gasket would be better. Probably not enough space to work with when engine is in truck and hold it all together?

 

[panhead george]

@panhead george , so if engine is out use the gasket and sealer? With engine in use the international gasket silicone sealer? I do a couple people that used the international sealer with engine in truck , one had a small leak. I would think the gasket would be better. Probably not enough space to work with when engine is in truck and hold it all together?

I am no expert. I used the sealant because it has worked for years. The gasket is another method and you still need to use the sealant to fill gaps, especially at the front and rear. I don't see how you save anything by not removing the engine. The sealing surfaces still need to be cleaned and oil free.

 

[SuperDutyTrooper]

@panhead george , so if engine is out use the gasket and sealer? With engine in use the international gasket silicone sealer? I do a couple people that used the international sealer with engine in truck , one had a small leak. I would think the gasket would be better. Probably not enough space to work with when engine is in truck and hold it all together?

Read post #6, and these are just my opinions, but they are definitely "educated" ones. With the engine IN OR OUT, if you are not going to flip it upside down, use the gasket. It is an excellent product that will work for you if you follow the directions for installation. You actually DO save time and expense by not removing the engine - I have done it - but it is not as much as you would probably think, and you do run the risk of having to remove it anyway if you are unable to unbolt/rebolt the pickup tube with the pan hanging. Search on "7.3 oil pan removal without pulling engine" to see multiple videos of people who have done this - they are helpful, but take them with the proverbial grain of salt because they leave out a lot of info. BTW, you will also need a new rectangular oil pickup tube gasket if you remove it.

With the engine out and flipped upside down, the sealant is probably the better option. If you use sealant on an upright engine IN OR OUT OF THE TRUCK, in my experience, you will get oil contamination that will cause leaks.