Mercury 7.4 l oil pan recondioning question?-gctid385080

[Guest]

I'm working on my friends Mercury 7.4 l with Bravo 3 outdrive. It had the old pain in the aft drive leak at the swivel pin. We decided to fix it properly and not do the root canal method from the outside. To me that method of fixing a leak by creating more potential leaks does not make sense. I have the tools and technology so the drive is off and the engine is out. Since the engine is out and has been exposed to salt water in the bilge for over a year I am replacing any parts that show any corrosion. A new oil pan is next to impossible to find and priced at over $750. It has minor surface rust in spots and I will clean it up. I would like to know what is the best product to use to recoat it after the clean up?

Thanks for any and all ideas,

Dave M

[Guest]

Haveyacht wrote:
I'm working on my friends Mercury 7.4 l with Bravo 3 outdrive. It had the old pain in the aft drive leak at the swivel pin. We decided to fix it properly and not do the root canal method from the outside. To me that method of fixing a leak by creating more potential leaks does not make sense. I have the tools and technology so the drive is off and the engine is out. Since the engine is out and has been exposed to salt water in the bilge for over a year I am replacing any parts that show any corrosion. A new oil pan is next to impossible to find and priced at over $750. It has minor surface rust in spots and I will clean it up. I would like to know what is the best product to use to recoat it after the clean up?

Thanks for any and all ideas,

Dave M

I am sure you know Dave that the timing cover has to come off to remove the pan.

[Guest]

Thanks for the heads up on the timing cover and I am prepared for that. The engine is out so the oil pan gasget will be replaced I'm not about to go through this again any time soon.

[SomeSailor]

Those pans are coated in a plastic material as well. I would sand blast the exterior and then run it past my nearest LineX dealer (truck bedliners) and they could shoot a coating on for ya pretty inexpensively and you'd likely be as good as new.

For what it's worth... the 'root canal method' works great.

Also... make sure you replace the swivel shaft with a stainless one. (they're cheaper than an OEM carbon steel pin)

[Guest]

SomeSailor,

Thank you for the info. Sounds like the right thing to do. I was not trying to discourage anyone from doing " the root canal method" it is a good fix according to the research I've done. I was just lucky enough to have the place and equiptment to pull the engine easily and wanted to address any corrosion issues and clean up the motor. It also gives me a good piece of mind for the future but as we all know anything can happen at any time. Thats just boating.

[Guest]

Apparently the oil pan for that has a metric drain plug which makes it a lot harder to get

the remote oil drain for it ( which i know you were talking about doing ) i used a product called " sttel blue "

do coat my slightly rusted pan on my old boat.It bought me a bit of time before i eventually replaced my oil

pan.

[CaptTom]

Thinking ahead here, if you read MY oil pan story you'll know why...

What about coating the new oil pan, or at least the lowest part of it, with that spray stuff they advertise on TV that for gutters & boats with screen doors for a bottom?

I bought a can at Home Depot. It seems sort of similar to bed liner spray.