Ugh.....Oil leak

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troverman

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I've never heard of a Ford oil pan rusting through, and I live in the rust belt. If it will rust through, it does here.

I think they should have used aluminum. No issues with rust, excessive heat, or chemical attack. Not as good with impacts as steel, but still better then plastic. Seems like it's the gaskets that are really the problem though.

I'm surprised you've never heard of Ford oil pans rusting out. I live in NH, and its very common in ME, NH, VT, etc. Ask the 7.3L diesel guys how they feel about it...requires major work to replace it because of an x-member. Even older Ford trucks from the 1980's and 1990's had this problem. The oil pans are very thin stamped steel and won't provide any meaningful impact resistance either.
 

EricM

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Yea, I have a lot of friends with Superduties and F150s- not one has ever had a rusted oil pan. Everything else possible has rusted though- radiator supports, rockers, cab corners, cab supports, bed supports, fenders, beds, bumpers, exhaust, window channels, spare tire carriers, hitches, you name it. Not a single oil pan failure. I always wipe the oil pan around the bolt after a change, then wipe the pan with the oily rag. I'm sure that's helped my trucks over the years.

I've also seen quite a few steel pans that were dented by road debris. They took a hit, held the oil and remained usable for the life of the truck. A plastic or aluminum pan likely would have cracked. Maybe not though, stuff like that is pretty random depending on what was hit.

Of all three materials, I would still prefer aluminum. It has most of the advantages of steel, won't rust, and is very good at dissipating heat. They are also thicker than steel, which gives you a much stiffer and flatter gasket surface where it meets the block. A plastic pan seems to me like it would have much more flex in the gasket surface, more similar to a steel pan. Aluminum castings are the most expensive option for the OEMs though, so they probably try to avoid them and go with plastic or steel where they can.
 

MJslasherADMIN

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Update: Dealer inspected (after 3 day wait for master mechanic) and said yup it's leaking we will order a new pan. Pan came in the next day and was installed by mm. Picked up truck and looked at invoice, no oil filter. I pointed out that the service manual calls for a new filter and after some discussion one was installed and I took her home.

Next day put her on the hoist to rotate tires (shit those bastards are heavy) and saw some oil underneath. Dropped the pans to clean them and now its puking oil instead of leaking.

Returned to dealer same mm inspected. Master mechanic says "They must have spilled all that oil when they replaced the filter". After demanding a dye test, the new pan has a crack on the front side. "Don't know if it came that way or was cracked on installation."

We will try again tomorrow.



Damn thats crazy.


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---------- Post added at 09:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:37 AM ----------

Just think, by the time you drove it home, it'd be ready to go back for another oil change!

---------- Post added at 07:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 AM ----------





We've got a 2016 F-150 2.7L in our household, bought new, now has over 20k miles. Plastic oil pan with quarter-turn drain hasn't given any trouble at all.



Interestingly, when Ford released the new 6.7L Powerstroke for 2011, it also came with a plastic oil pan and the quarter-turn drain plug. In 2012, they went back to a stamped steel oil pan with a normal drain plug bolt. I never heard any complaints about the plastic pan; in fact some owners who eventually traded in their 2011's lamented going back to a steel pan. Ford has a long history of having their thin stamped steel oil pans rot out.



But plastic pans are used very successfully on many vehicles, not just Fords. They are lighter weight, possibly cheaper to make, and have better noise control than thin steel.



Informative post. Glad to see that.


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smurfslayer

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User formerly known as sasquatch77 is not wrong in this case. The plastic pan in use on the Rap - maybe the rest of the EB lineup --is-- being reported as failing at an abnormally high rate even accounting for the “only posting bad news on the internet” phenomenon.

A buddy of mine did find an aluminum EB pan, and sent me a link to it, I didn’t follow up on it but... something is not right with this implementation, whether it’s the pan, the installation or a combination, we shouldn’t be seeing this many issues.
 

jaz13

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User formerly known as sasquatch77 is not wrong in this case. The plastic pan in use on the Rap - maybe the rest of the EB lineup --is-- being reported as failing at an abnormally high rate even accounting for the “only posting bad news on the internet” phenomenon.

A buddy of mine did find an aluminum EB pan, and sent me a link to it, I didn’t follow up on it but... something is not right with this implementation, whether it’s the pan, the installation or a combination, we shouldn’t be seeing this many issues.

Widely reported leaks are not caused by cracked plastic, but a poor seal. Metal pans also require seals, so this problem wouldn't be solved by changing what the oil pan is made of.

There is zero stress placed on the oil pan, so it makes a lot of sense to make it out of something that is cheap, lightweight, and doesn't corrode.
 

Mcnawsty

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Widely reported leaks are not caused by cracked plastic, but a poor seal. Metal pans also require seals, so this problem wouldn't be solved by changing what the oil pan is made of.

There is zero stress placed on the oil pan, so it makes a lot of sense to make it out of something that is cheap, lightweight, and doesn't corrode.

This is an incorrect statement.. pans are being replaced and get new gaskets (gaskets are 1 time use). The leaks shown on the web are around bolt holes where the bolts seem to have been overtourqued. Steel pans never had issues like these.
 

EricM

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Widely reported leaks are not caused by cracked plastic, but a poor seal. Metal pans also require seals, so this problem wouldn't be solved by changing what the oil pan is made of.

There is zero stress placed on the oil pan, so it makes a lot of sense to make it out of something that is cheap, lightweight, and doesn't corrode.

It could make a difference. The stiffness of the pan rail matters. The clamp load is not even since the bolts are spaced apart, so the stiffer the rail is, the less likely it is to leak.

My guess is they designed the plastic pan reinforcing ribs assuming certain performance from the gasket, but the gasket is not performing as assumed, therefore they are getting leaks.
 

aalonso

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Just completed the oil pan replacement. The leaks are caused because the factory did not add an adequate amount of the“liguid” gasket.. there is no gasket, all there is an RTV caulking substance added to the pan. My tech used the one used on Diesel engines which dries faster and creates a better seal than what is used in the F150... if you look at the first two pics, you can see how thin the rtv caulking is...here are the pics:
2606bf885555c8d82f178c3caaf6d890.jpg
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jaz13

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This is an incorrect statement.. pans are being replaced and get new gaskets (gaskets are 1 time use). The leaks shown on the web are around bolt holes where the bolts seem to have been overtourqued. Steel pans never had issues like these.

Poster who actually owns a G2 raptor and had a leaking oil pan disagrees with you, (and has pictures to prove it) but nothing is new since everyone on this forum disagrees with you.
 

Mcnawsty

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Go back and review pictures earlier in the thread. There are cracked pans and leaks around bolt holes. That has been the majority of complaints.
 
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