Oil Pan Replacement

[carbob]

So I’m not the greatest mechanic but I have replaced seat belts and the evaporator tank in addition to routine maintenance on my ‘03 4.4. Last year the dealer wrote “unable to torque drain plug” after an oil change while also replacing a half shaft. No oil leaks but I’m thinking the oil pan may need replacing, called the dealer and they want about $1000, posts and you-tube’s show a horrendous project for the 3.0 but can’t find much on the 4.4 replacement, any of you done this job? Is it as straightforward as it “appears”? Thanks.

[andrewwynn]

I helped a buddy find a 3rd party lower pan to fix a broken drain plug hole. He's has the M62 it cost like $60-70.

You can get self-tapping fix plus but I don't love the idea because where do the metal shavings go?

The V8 has a two part oil pan and the lower part is a very straight forward replacement.

The trickiest part is torquing the bolts properly. Screwing steel into aluminum is always a bit risky. Most torque wrenches don't go down low enough. When I put an oil pan on recently I used my 1/4" drive Impact driver on "hand tight" mode to snug everything and then some additional torque angle (like 45 or 60°)