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Tech

A/C Update Kit
Aux. Turbo Pump
Control Arms
Crank Scraper
Cross Member
Idle Valve Test
Intake Manifold
Fuel Rail
Fuel Rail Gauge
Harness Repair
Oil Pan
Reflector Housing
Rod Bearings
Sway Bar
Sport Seats
Steering Rack
Struts (Koni)
Turbo X-Over Pipe
Vacuum Replacement

Oil Pan

 

Before you can remove the oil pan. There are numerous other components you will have to remove:

  1. Remove the fuel rail
  2. Remove the intake manifold
  3. Remove the turbo cross over pipe
  4. Remove the sway bar
  5. Remove the control arms
  6. Remove the power steering rack
  7. Remove the front suspension/ engine cross member

Once you have all that removed. Start draining the oil pan. Let it drain as long as possible. The more you get out of the pan while draining, the less you have to worry about being in the pan when you drop it. After you let it drain as much as possible, put the drain plug back in. Remove the pan with the drain plug inserted to keep any oil left in the pan from spilling out.

You will also need to move the air conditioning compressor out of the way. Either remove completely the a/c compressor, or move it out of the way by loosening the belt and turnbuckle. I removed mine completely.

Also, when it comes time to install the oil pan, I highly recommend having a buddy to help you out. Honestly, I could not get it in place by myself. You have to hold the pan up, line up the front and rear of the gasket, line up bolts, stat the bolts, all at the same time. Needless to say, unless you have 4 arms, I found it to be pretty impossible. I literally spent hours trying to get my pan in place by myself. I had a friend come over, and it went on without any problems.

Removal

  

Here you can see the oil pan with all the major components listed above removed. There are 22 bolts that hold the oil pan on. The four bolts on the corners are longer than the rest.

There is a heat shield on the passenger side that needs to be removed. It protects the gasket from exhaust heat. Remove the two bolts that hold the heat shield in place.

There is also a large heat shield on the driver's side (not pictured). It's not as easy to get off, so I just used a pry bar and bent it away from the pan a little bit.

Remove the oil line for the turbo charger. It's a large bolt, but it's not on very tight. A large adjustable wrench should be fine in this application; that's what I used.

Now is time to remove the 22 bolts. I left the four long bolts for last, that way I could drop it slowly keeping it level. This also keeps it from hitting the ground, possibly damaging one of those cooling fins.

After the pan is removed, prop it up and drain as much oil out as possible. Depending on if you have any sludge build up, further cleaning may be necessary. If you plan to use any cleaner or put it in a parts washer, remove the plastic baffle. Be very careful when removing the plastic baffle. Mine broke into pieces and they are expensive ($80 - $120).
   

Cleanup, 87+ Pan Swap, and Lindsey Racing Baffle Install

I read on a few forums, that the 87+ up style pan gives better oil flow. Since I had the pan off, and it was so time consuming to do so, I wanted to do as many upgrades as financially feasible. I ended up getting a used pan from an '88 944 from www.944online.com. You can see the differences in the pan are slight, most notably the oil level sensor port.

Here is a side view of the pan. Once again, the differences are slight.

Since the oil pan was off, I had a Lindsey Racing baffle welded inside. I thought it was very cheap insurance.

Note the hole to the right of the picture that is not threaded. That is for the oil level sensor. The baffle kits are different depending on if you have an oil level sensor or not.

The Lindsey Racing baffle kit also comes with a ring to weld around the pick up tube screen. I actually called Lindsey to ask what they were trying to accomplish with this ring, since it seemed to be that it would inhibit flow. They said it cut down on the bubble intake. I trusted them, and had the machinist install it.

NOTE: '87+ oil pans also have a smaller diameter pick up tube screen.

Next it was time to clean the pan up. Luckily, my machinist used his heated parts washer and got it really clean for me, but I still wanted to clean the gasket surfaces. I recommend using these 3M Roloc disks with a die grinder to clean gasket surfaces. Scrapers are time consuming, juvenile, and can pit aluminum if you are not VERY careful. You will be amazed the first time you use one of these if you're used to manually scraping off gaskets. The Rolocs are kind of expensive, but remember, the key to a good gasket seal is the cleanliness of the surface. Do you really want to do this process again?

Since my car is a 1986 model. I had no use for the oil level sensor. At first I was going to just put it in the pan and leave it unplugged. However, when I went to the Porsche catalogue to get a part number for the gasket, I noticed a picture of what I thought may be some kind of block off plate. I ordered the part (It was only about $12) and sure enough, it was a block off plate.

I did keep the sender. Maybe one day I will figure out how to use it with my spare instrument cluster which is from a 1987 951 (it has the low oil light).

Install either the oil level sender or the block off plate with a fresh gasket.

Install the plastic oil pan baffle in the oil pan. I recommend using blue Loctite on the bolts. The reason I used loctite is because these bolts are constantly bathed in oil with not much torque. You don't want them to back out and end up having a happy hour in you oil pan!
   

Installation

  

The gasket needs to be lined up on the pan to make it much easier to get in place. Use some dental floss to tie every few bolts in place. Also, duct tape a few bolts in place. That way, they are in place when the pan is put up against the block.

Here is a close up of how the duct tape keeps the bolt and gasket in place. I tried using just dental floss holding just the gasket for hours, before using duct tape to hold the gasket and a few bolts. The duct tape method worked much better.

With help of a buddy, lift the oil pan in place as level as possible. Concentrate on the rear of the pan more importantly at first. The gasket is hard to see if it is in the rear valley compared to the front. You can also come back and adjust the front much easier than adjusting the rear.

Attach the oil pan bolts in the following sequence in three stages. Barely finger tight on the first stage, 3 ft/lb of torque on the second stage, and 6 ft/lb of torque on the second stage. I used a 3/8" in/lb Snap On torque wrench since my 1/2" drive didn't go down that low.

Reattach the passenger side heat shield. If needed, bend the driver side heat shields back in place.

Reattach the bolt for the turbo oil line..