TJ: hit oilpan pretty good, anything I should be checking?

[daniel_buck]

I hit my oil pan pretty good this weekend, put a good sized dent in it, but It was not punctured.

But I'm assuming that a good portion of the jeep's weight was resting on the oilpan for at least a moment or two. Is there anything that I should check out? If it's not leaking or anything, then I assume there is no real reason to replace the oilpan? There will be less oil capacity, I'll find out about how much less when I change the oil this afternoon.

I'm guessing that the motormounts might be something to give a real good look at, make sure there aren't any cracks or anything? I didn't notice anything different about the jeep (noises and so on), so I'm assuming that everything is ok. I'm thinking that I'll just put a jack on the oil pan, and raise it upa bit, and then check out the motor mounts to see if there are any cracks. What else should I be checking, if anything? I just want to make sure that I didn't do damage elsewhere.

Under skids are high on the list, haha!

[I H8RDS]

Daniel....you know I don't put anything cheap on my rig. SKIDROW oil and exhaust skid is what I have. Have hit it a few times with no issues. It's a good skid

[Jeeperator]

Dont jack it up by the oil pan what ever you do!. Use the front diff or the frame. The oil pan probably could take it but yours might be in a weakend state. I hardly think you hurt the mounts or anything but wouldnt hurt to check things out. High clearanc skids are a must as far as im concerned.

[Zoobi]

On my CJ I bashed the pan often, Eventually I put a skid on it. If its not leaking and the drain bolt can seal, check motor mounts and dont worry. I slid off a sharp drop last spring in my tj and stuck on my pan skid. The whole front weight was on that, gouged the quarter plate some. I was glad I had that. Probably would have torn the pan otherwise

[aw12345]

Since you wanted to work on fab and welding skills, this will be a nice project to built, a engine, trans and belly skid all tucked up as high as you can

[DaK]

post some pics.. lets see the dent.

[6spdYJ]

Check your engine mounts. They absorb oil and soften. A good hit can push the mounting bolt through, letting the motor rock up under torque and put the fan into the shroud.

[Roundeyes]

How bad is that dent?
If its high enough it could affect the oil pump pickup inside the pan.

My old 47 CJ2 had a ¼” plate welded to the bottom of the oil pan.
Something to think about.

[Zoobi]

Too bad you can fit one of these
http://www.teraflex.biz/oil-pan-skid...2001-only.html
Great price

[daniel_buck]

What I meant by jacking from from the oilpan, that I might be able to see the motor mounts maybe flexing where they shouldn't be.

The oil is all drained right now, and I did notice that on my cardboard that I keep under the jeep every night there is probably 3x the amount of drips, so.... something is leaking. The bolt seems to be ok, I don't think the bolt got hit. I'm going to poke around under there a bit more, maybe it's leaking from the oilpan gasket. Maybe the hit made it start to leak somewhere.

I have not noticed any difference in performance, sound, or oil pressure. How would I know if the oil pickup is damaged somehow? (pull the pan, I guess?)

I'm sending myself a better photo of the oilpan, but here's the one I took right as we were airing up, I got a better photo of it this morning, will post it shortly.

[daniel_buck]

here is a view from the side, shows the side of the dent more clearly.

[daniel_buck]

so I'm looking around at the oilpan, and I cannot find any areas that look like they are more saturated with oil than others. There's just a collection of oil moisture at bottom of the pan, near the bolt. So, I'm guessing it's the oil plug?

I did find that there is one oilpan bolt missing. It doesn't look like it is recently missing (I don't see a ring where the bolt head would have been) it's probably been missing for a while. I should probably put a bolt in there just in case.

[DaK]

Dude now that is a DENT!

[curtis]

I would say new pan and skid. My :2:

[aw12345]

You can try beating the oilpan out or changing it. Then a skid plate that covers the oilpan and trans, so you do not bust the bellhousing either. You get into rockcrawling some nice smooth skids underneath are the thing to do