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You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Auto Repair > Triumph Repair > '80 Spitfire - oil pan gasket
Triumph Repair - '80 Spitfire - oil pan gasket
Expert: Howard M. Fitzcharles III - 11/3/2009
Question
Hi Howard,
I am trying to potty train my 1980 Spitfire. It leaks oil from various places, and it seems that the oil pan gasket is the biggest culprit.
Is it possible to pull the oil pan out with the engine still in the car? It appears that either the engine, or the transmission must be pulled to get the pan out.
Have you ever pulled an oil pan out of a 1494CC Spitfire with the engine, and transmission still in the car?
Thanks in advance for your answer.
Ed
Answer
Hi Ed,
I have not done it but have seen it done by unbolting the motor mounts and using an engine hoist to lift the engine up a little.
It is rare to need to pull a pan in the car because if anything in the pan that needs work then 99.99% of the time the crank will need to be pulled too.
Triumphs are not like domestic cars that have bad oil pumps at times and if a bearing is bad, most likely the crank is damaged and needs to be turned.
When you have a lot of oil leaks including the pan, you should check for excessive crank case pressure either from a stopped up breather system or excessive blow-by of the rings.
A point to look at carefully is the pot metal block across the front main bearing cap. If the wrong bolts were installed there, they will pop the ends of the threaded part of the pot metal block and thus cause a oil leak and especially if someone had overtightened those bolts and stripped the threads (easy to do) I rebuilt several Spitfires that had lost all of their oil due to that. Not a good design.
Howard
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