Westerbeke sump stuck

[zboss]

Folks,

My mechanic is trying to change the oil gasket on my Westerbeke 46 and He's managed to get all of the bolts off. However, the pan is stuck on.

According to the technical specs we are in agreement that there don't seem to be any additional bolts that would still be connecting the pan. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Z


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[a64pilot]

Pans are always stuck, usually good blow or two with a rubber mallet breaks the seal. Try your best to not put a screwdriver between the pan and the block, I've seen several pans dented that way, but it's not usually a big deal to straighten one.
I'v had to use a punch to knock a pan loose mysely, usually the pan extends out past the bock a litte, enough so a punch can be use to drive it down, again pans are soft metal so be a little easy on it.

[zboss]

This turns out to be a mechanic issue. I asked him to count that he had 16 bolts out which he insisted he did. After he left for the day I checked and he was short one bolt... which took me about 1 minute of feeling around to find.

So, my confidence in this mechanic is not high.

Earlier he had difficulty finding the right size socket for a bolt. He said, xyz is too big and abc is too small so I don't know what size I need! My immediate thought was "its metric". Well it was!

[sanibel sailor]

Only thing worse than making an error is paying someone else to make an error. I have always found these to be compelling reasons to learn to do it myself.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

Only thing worse than making an error is paying someone else to make an error. I have always found these to be compelling reasons to learn to do it myself.

This particular issue is something I didn't feel comfortable tackling myself but now that I am watching the steps, I feel its something I could do myself in the future on this or another engine.

Now I want to learn how to replace the head gaskets and adjust the valves.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by zboss

Now I want to learn how to replace the head gaskets and adjust the valves.

Yup, should be a lot easier: it's on the TOP!

[Cheechako]

Be careful, there may be two locater pins that align the pan to the block also.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Be careful, there may be two locater pins that align the pan to the block also.

Thanks I didn't see anything like that but I'll mention it tomorrow. The technical manual just says :

"a. Loosen and remove attaching bolts and remove oil pan and gasket."

with an accompanying picture.

[Blue Stocking]

Also that pan uses a split gasket that appears to be too long at the front. DONT CUT IT. The little nibs have to go in behind the seal clip, otherwise oil will leak out there.

[zboss]

We ended up being able to get the pan out. After the last bolt was removed We did find very thin silver slivers of metal in the oil pan. They were NOT bronze/copper in color and the mechanic couldn't say what they were. We do change our oil on time and besides the oil issue and the transmission leak it starts easy, doesn't smoke, and runs very well.

At some point, the engine had been worked on. In addition to the gasket, there was sealant all around parts of the pan. Indeed, they had cut the gasket at critical locations to get it to fit. The mechanic correctly pointed out that this should not have been done. They also failed to seal some of the bolts that go all the way though and could cause oil to leak around them.

We are also replacing the front and the rear seals... the rear seal was especially bad... didn't realize it was so bad until we got it apart. Unfortunately, with this particular engine you need to remove quite a bit of the rear engine, including the bell housing, to get to the seal. I'm hoping we never have to replace the seal again.

It is nice to be able to reach places we have not been able to reach to clean up. While we are in there we plan on cleaning the engine itself, all around the engine, and into the bilge (again). Replace all the engine hoses. Then we will paint with Bilgekote, which seems to make it much easier to clean in the future, install a large bilge pump (4000 GPH), new bilge pump switch (ultrapump sr), new larger diameter bilge hose, and a new larger bilge through-hull. Also replacing the damper plate....

That loud sound you heard was me falling over in disgust.