mmranch
Gold Member
I have a TYM 603 tractor/CAT engine that began to have an oil pan gasket leak awhile back. Sent it back to the dealer and they pulled and replaced the oil pan gasket. Seemed to work fine for awhile. Then later it began to leak again. The majority of the leak appeared to be along the rear edge of the oil pan gasket by the bell housing (oil pan is basically a rectangular shape) but there were a couple of lesser leaking spots up front too.
Because the dealer is far away and I would have to pay to transport the tractor to the dealer and be without my machine for a week or two, I told them to ship me the gasket and I would replace.
There are about 25-30 small bolts that hold on the pan and they are spaced about 1 inch apart... maybe 1.5 inches. As I removed the bolts, the bolts along the rear edge near the bell housing are in a tight spot and there are two large bolt heads which simply hold on a cover plate on the bell housing. These bolt heads prohibit getting a socket wrench straight onto two of the oil pan bolts. So I used a small universal adapter to remove these bolts. As I did, I noticed that one of the bolts seemed very stripped and the other only had a slight amount of strippage. I realized that when the dealer replaced the gasket, they stripped one of the bolts because they couldn't get a clear shot at them because of the two bell housing bolts. And I'm not sure yet whether it's even possible to have removed the bell housing bolts because they may not be able to be installed after the oil pan is installed as the space is very tight and they might not be able to get into their holes with the pan blocking them. Even before I removed the pan, I noticed a chunk of gasket sticking out the side of the flange and when I removed the pan it was clear that the gasket had been pinched and sliced and this was the main cause of leaking. Bolts torqued too tight.
Anyway, so one bolt showed significant strippage. And I got a new bolt.
So I removed the pan, cleaned everything and got ready to re-install. The CAT gasket is basically blackish in color on one side and reddish in color on the other side. I used high-temp Permatex and applied it to the flange of the oil pan, carefully placed the gasket on the pan flange (with the red side towards the pan if I recall correctly) and applied Permatex to the top of the gasket (black side) and installed the pan. When I got to the rear bolts, I had the same basic problem as it's impossible to get a clean, straight shot onto two of the bolts because of the bell housing bolt heads that are in the way. So I started them both by hand and the less-stripped hole bolt went in just fine. The more stripped bolt hole was much harder to get started. At a certain point, you can't get the bolts to go in any further with your fingers and so I used the small socket with universal to get them in. Less stripped went all the way no problem. But more stripped only went most of the way in and I could feel it was going to strip out if I went further so I stopped with that bolt head about 1/16" away from the pan flange. I put all the bolts in lightly and waited awhile before torquing them all the way per the Permatex instructions.
I had asked my dealer for a copy of the oil pan change section of the manual to no avail. I was hoping to read any special info about torque specs, etc. I knew I should not over-torque so was careful but I didn't use a torque wrench. And that one bolt never made it all the way in but with the close spacing of the bolts and the Permatex, I thought it should be fine. I was concerned about the possibility of oil leaking from around that one bolt so I put a big glob of Permatex over the whole bolt head. I let it cure for 18 hours before starting the engine.
I was in the middle of a heavy work project with a lot of backhoeing and dirtmoving and all went fine for about 3-4 days. The forward backhoe mount lives bolted to the frame near the oil pan and takes a lot of abuse as the backhoe frame slams around. The gasket began leaking again primarily from this rear edge and dripping down the bell housing. It also was leaking on one of the front corners and dripping from a single bolt. I kept working for days just watching the oil levels closely and seeing the leak increase in volume slightly.
I contacted the dealer about the new leak and they did some research. Apparently TYM (or maybe I should say CAT) has had a problem with oil pan leaks on this tractor/engine. Basically, they said the answer was to use very low torque on all the oil pan bolts (9ft lbs) as opposed to the original spec of like 30-40 ft lbs. They sent me a new gasket and I am in the process of replacing it again. This time, I will use my tap & die set to try to clean up that one bolt hole before installing to see if that helps. As I inspect the zone, there appears to be no chunks of gasket sticking out and the Permatex looks exactly as it was at installation with none dislodged. I will be removing the pan shortly.
My questions are:
1. Have others experienced similar oil pan leak problems with their tractors?
2. Anyone know which side of the gasket (red or black) should go which direction?
3. The dealer recommended using a Helicoil to drill and replace the threads in the stripped bolt hole. I have not done this before and am VERY leery of drilling into the engine block but ultimately may have to go this route. Have others used this process before?
Thanks for any ideas!
Because the dealer is far away and I would have to pay to transport the tractor to the dealer and be without my machine for a week or two, I told them to ship me the gasket and I would replace.
There are about 25-30 small bolts that hold on the pan and they are spaced about 1 inch apart... maybe 1.5 inches. As I removed the bolts, the bolts along the rear edge near the bell housing are in a tight spot and there are two large bolt heads which simply hold on a cover plate on the bell housing. These bolt heads prohibit getting a socket wrench straight onto two of the oil pan bolts. So I used a small universal adapter to remove these bolts. As I did, I noticed that one of the bolts seemed very stripped and the other only had a slight amount of strippage. I realized that when the dealer replaced the gasket, they stripped one of the bolts because they couldn't get a clear shot at them because of the two bell housing bolts. And I'm not sure yet whether it's even possible to have removed the bell housing bolts because they may not be able to be installed after the oil pan is installed as the space is very tight and they might not be able to get into their holes with the pan blocking them. Even before I removed the pan, I noticed a chunk of gasket sticking out the side of the flange and when I removed the pan it was clear that the gasket had been pinched and sliced and this was the main cause of leaking. Bolts torqued too tight.
Anyway, so one bolt showed significant strippage. And I got a new bolt.
So I removed the pan, cleaned everything and got ready to re-install. The CAT gasket is basically blackish in color on one side and reddish in color on the other side. I used high-temp Permatex and applied it to the flange of the oil pan, carefully placed the gasket on the pan flange (with the red side towards the pan if I recall correctly) and applied Permatex to the top of the gasket (black side) and installed the pan. When I got to the rear bolts, I had the same basic problem as it's impossible to get a clean, straight shot onto two of the bolts because of the bell housing bolt heads that are in the way. So I started them both by hand and the less-stripped hole bolt went in just fine. The more stripped bolt hole was much harder to get started. At a certain point, you can't get the bolts to go in any further with your fingers and so I used the small socket with universal to get them in. Less stripped went all the way no problem. But more stripped only went most of the way in and I could feel it was going to strip out if I went further so I stopped with that bolt head about 1/16" away from the pan flange. I put all the bolts in lightly and waited awhile before torquing them all the way per the Permatex instructions.
I had asked my dealer for a copy of the oil pan change section of the manual to no avail. I was hoping to read any special info about torque specs, etc. I knew I should not over-torque so was careful but I didn't use a torque wrench. And that one bolt never made it all the way in but with the close spacing of the bolts and the Permatex, I thought it should be fine. I was concerned about the possibility of oil leaking from around that one bolt so I put a big glob of Permatex over the whole bolt head. I let it cure for 18 hours before starting the engine.
I was in the middle of a heavy work project with a lot of backhoeing and dirtmoving and all went fine for about 3-4 days. The forward backhoe mount lives bolted to the frame near the oil pan and takes a lot of abuse as the backhoe frame slams around. The gasket began leaking again primarily from this rear edge and dripping down the bell housing. It also was leaking on one of the front corners and dripping from a single bolt. I kept working for days just watching the oil levels closely and seeing the leak increase in volume slightly.
I contacted the dealer about the new leak and they did some research. Apparently TYM (or maybe I should say CAT) has had a problem with oil pan leaks on this tractor/engine. Basically, they said the answer was to use very low torque on all the oil pan bolts (9ft lbs) as opposed to the original spec of like 30-40 ft lbs. They sent me a new gasket and I am in the process of replacing it again. This time, I will use my tap & die set to try to clean up that one bolt hole before installing to see if that helps. As I inspect the zone, there appears to be no chunks of gasket sticking out and the Permatex looks exactly as it was at installation with none dislodged. I will be removing the pan shortly.
My questions are:
1. Have others experienced similar oil pan leak problems with their tractors?
2. Anyone know which side of the gasket (red or black) should go which direction?
3. The dealer recommended using a Helicoil to drill and replace the threads in the stripped bolt hole. I have not done this before and am VERY leery of drilling into the engine block but ultimately may have to go this route. Have others used this process before?
Thanks for any ideas!