Dodged a bullet thanks to a leaky oil pan gasket!

[Viperguynick]

So, I dropped the pan today to replace the old, cracked, plastic oil pan gasket, and what do I find??? Two of the windage pan screws almost COMPLETELY backed out! It was both of the rear screws, one was literally just about half a turn away from falling out, the other was a couple turns. All other screws were tight. I dissasembled, put blue thread-sealant on all the screws and hopefully that wont happen again. Just a reminder to all that you should check these if you have the pan off the car. Honestly, dropping the pan wasn't hard at all, so you may want to drop the pan and put some loc-tite on them at your next oil change.

Nick

 

[plumcrazy]

this is actually not uncommon. good reminder

 

[AbsolutHank]

Hmm...never heard of that. Sometimes you just gotta get lucky!

 

[ViperTony]

Happened to me last year. No biggie. Two of my screws ended up on the bottom of pan with nowhere to go.

 

[caseyse]

Blew my Gen-IV motor a few months ago as a result of this. Coming out of a turn, a screw rolled into my timing chain, breaking the chain. Lots of damage...push rods, valves, cracked (ported) head. Block was bored .05 over to clean it up. Dodge receives these assemblies preassembled from a parts supplier who seems to to have problem reliably torquing these screws.

 

[VJR3]

Was already going to install my baffle kit from JonB on Sunday. I'm glad I caught this thread, Thanks for posting.

 

[AZTVR]

At my first oil change after driving my car home from buying it more than a thousand miles away, I found one of those screws stuck to the drain plug magnet. Others were loose. That was my first Viper "fix." The second was the fascia screw puncturing the overflow bottle issue.

 

[Viperguynick]

Yes, I have seen some posts on it here before, but thought it would be a good reminder. As noted in this thread, sometimes it's not a big deal and the screws just fall to the bottom of the pan, or make their way to the drain plug. But there have been documented cases of engine failures due to these little buggers, so it's a good thing to check.

Nick

 

[ViperTony]

Yes, I have seen some posts on it here before, but thought it would be a good reminder. As noted in this thread, sometimes it's not a big deal and the screws just fall to the bottom of the pan, or make their way to the drain plug. But there have been documented cases of engine failures due to these little buggers, so it's a good thing to check.

Nick

Trying to figure out how the screw can make it's way up into the engine on a Gen II and cause an engine failure/

 

[Camfab]

Mine were loose as well at 17,000 miles.

 

[Dom426h]

Trying to figure out how the screw can make it's way up into the engine on a Gen II and cause an engine failure/

I dont see any possible way as well. You could throw practicaly anything in the bottom of a Gen2 oil pan and it would simply sit on top of the screen.

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I went to replace/upgrade my oilpan with the 2000-2002 10qt pan plus added the BBD/JonB Baffle Kit a couple weeks ago and Also noticed that 4 of the 8 screws were loose so i guess it is common.

Anyone 1996-1999 owner reading this thread with intentions of dropping their oil pan for any reason I suggest at minimum installing the baffle/trapdoor kit in there to help prevent oil starvation. A very cheap investment for jus over 200bucks as opposed to spinning a bearing and having to rebuild. Another(more expensive) option is to upgrade to the 00-02 higher capacity oil pan. Or do both

Here is a link showing how easy it is to install the baffle kit:
Dodge Viper Oil Pan Baffle

 

[Viperguynick]

Trying to figure out how the screw can make it's way up into the engine on a Gen II and cause an engine failure/

Ok, I'll give you that the gentlman above posted about a Gen IV engine failure. I guess I just prefer not to have random bits of metal loose in my oil pan, regardless of whether or not there is any easy way for it to get sucked into the pump intake. Oil is viscous and screws are light, there is a lot of splashing that goes on in that pan. I just would rather err on the side of caution and not have a .05 cent piece of steel cause ANY sort of damage to my very expensive engine... But maybe I'm just overly cautious.

Nick