whitels

A mechanic once told me that oil pan leak has more to do with cylinder blow by, and not so much of eroding oil pan gasket seal. He even said that at some point, replacing the oil pan gasket is considered temporary at best because the high compression pressure from the blowby will eventually force the oil to seep through. He thinks that this is a good indicator of engine condition. Makes sense to me.

Let's prove or disprove it.

Who here has engine oil pan leak, at what mileage did the leak start, what oil do you use, how often do you change oil, and do you race your engine quite a bit (ie love to rev it and stay in the 4000-6000 rpm range), etc??

Our 01 RX has 165,000, Mobil 1 from brand new- changed every 5,000 miles. Wifey drives it on the freeway mostly at 65-75 mph. No oil pan leak yet.

thomas1

I think i may have some leakage, but it could be the crankshaft front seal. Will find out when I change timing belt....The PCV valve also has a lot to do with it.....176k miles and going....

IndyRX300

157k miles. Pretty confident the oil pan is leaking.

code58

There's less chance of the pan leaking on the RX than anything that uses a cork gasket. They use silicone on both the block to upper pan and upper to lower pan, and it's really good silicone. I agree that blow-by or running hard will cause leaks, but I'm betting on the RX it's gonna leak somewhere else before it leaks from the factory silicone.