killed my oil pan, any way to fix this?

flyfish said

Having just gone through something similar over the past few weeks (I had a 4" crack in my Milodon pan), all I can say is pull it and HAVE SOMEONE COMPETENT WELD IT....I tried to weld my pan myself and totally jacked it up....apparently I'm not a very skilled welder, or the metal was just too thin, either way I totally screwed up my pan trying to save it...so bad that the only real option was to replace it. If you take it to a pro you will save money in the long run.

Oh, and I tried the JB weld thing too (don't bother)....it worked for a few days at the end of last race season as a temp fix, then it let me down on my last race when I was down to 5 cars (started dripping).:wack:

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Oil pans are a pain because of, well, the oil. It permeates everything. And of course when you weld you want a super clean surface. If there's any oil contamination left over, it burns off and you get a crappy weld and a lot of spatter. That's mostly a problem with MIG and TIG.

And the Milodon's have that gold iridited finish. It's a kind of zinc coating, and has to be removed before welding. You can take it off with a wire brush or abrasive wheel within an 1" of so of the repair. You do not want to breathe it either.

I'd wipe the pan down thoroughly with acetone to remove all of the oil residue and then use a scuff wheel to remove the gold iridited finish near the weld. Then TIG it.