By Brian Wilborn (24.4.254.106) on Sunday, July 15, 2001 - 10:12 am:

OK, this is pissing me off. I just got my Civic back on the road Tuesday after an extensive front-end rebuild. I drove my car all of about 10 miles, then the oil pan gasket popped and spewed about a quart of oil all over my engine compartment. In order to fix this I went and bought a new gasket from Honda and installed that. I used copius amounts of Permatex SUper Copper gasket sealant and reinstalled the pan. 24 hours later, I went out and re-installed oil in the car and started it up. 15 or 20 minutes went by and everything looked good, so I took it out for a drive. It seemed to run fine until I got back home and noticed oil running, (not dripping) from the pan AGAIN. In the course of about a 5 mile drive, I lost a little over a quart of oil. What the hell is going on here. The oil pan doesn't look damaged, and I can't think of what else could be wrong. My car is a 79 CVCC. If anyone has any suggestions, please give me a hand. Thanks.

By Don (209.181.52.18) on Sunday, July 15, 2001 - 11:52 am:

Sometimes the rubber type gaskets pop out if you over torque them (torque wrench?), I have had luck using both the OEM rubber type and the cork type from Felpro on the 1200's. You may want to try the cork type. Put a straight edge on the pan, that way you KNOW it's not the problem.
In order for silicone to seal & stick you must have clean (no oil- Zero)surfaces, carb clean and paper shop towels work. I like the plain black Permatex
On a side note I was looking for some spare Konis and saw this front air dam 79 CVCC only, you may want to get one.
http://www.classicgarage.com/civ1519onfro.html

By civic1200freak (65.33.56.137) on Sunday, July 15, 2001 - 08:04 pm:

does anybody else here believe in hondabond as much as I do? Don't forget, you must apply sealer to all 4 corners of the gasket were it has to (hop) over the front and rear mains. Even the best gaskets won't seal here, that's where the sealer takes up the slack of trying to seal in a corner. dont give up hope....And yes, proper torque is essential also ....I think it's 9ft.lbs. Double check to make sure though. Hope this helps

By Brian Wilborn (24.4.254.106) on Sunday, July 15, 2001 - 09:38 pm:

Well, after examination of the two fucked gaskets my dad came to the conclusion that they were split due to overtorquing. This seems strange however since I torqued both gaskets to 10Nm as stated in all of the repair manuals I have. Ungh. This time I'm trying *no* gasket and a substance called "The Right Stuff" which claims it's better than any precut gasket when applied all by itself. We'll see tomorrow morning after it is all cured and I start this thing up again.

By quikrick (63.204.16.66) on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 04:40 pm:

I had the exact same problem with my '81 Accord a few months ago. It was a torque problem. The freak is correct, it shoul be torqued at 9 lb-ft. I also used Honda Bond. It worked. 9 lbs seems a bit on the light side, but you must trust Honda on this one.