the only oil pan gasket my local autozone shop sells for my year is this guy...

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/cat...chText=oil+pan

 

NOTE TO ALL:
If you try to post a link to a part on one of these "e-tail" sites from a chain with national stores, we're starting all over again with the link. Please post the part number itself instead.

OP - if it's a Fel-Pro part number, and it ends with a "C", it's four-piece cork-and-rubber. If it ends in "R", it's one-piece moulded rubber.

Most chains are shortening their supply chain and only stocking the one-piece moulded rubber gasket - and I'm not sure, but Fel-Pro may have quit making the four-piece job entirely. It would make sense if they did...

 

but is the one peice rubber anygood?

 

Yes it's good and that's the one you want. Just don't over-torque the pan bolts or you'll cause it to leak.

 

I will use it on every 242ci I pull the sump from - whether it's my own, or it's paying work. I'm a perfectionist, and there's not a whole Hell of a lot that irritates me more than doing a job twice.

Does that tell you what you want to know?

 

If the bolts found in the very front (at timing cover inside gasket dip) are the smaller ones (1/4" thread, 7/16" wrench), should they be torqued to 84 in/lbs (spec) or 132 in/lbs (spec for 5/16" thread, 1/2" wrench)?

 

84" / 12 = 7 foot lbs
132" / 12 = 11 foot lbs

 

Why wouldn't all 4.0 L AMC 242s have the larger threads up front?

 

They don't. None of them do. The oil sump screws that thread into the timing cover are all 1/4"-20x1/2".

 

Really. How do you explain this? Also found in other years.

Found in '97 TJ FSM, page 9-76:

 

They changed the front cover, then.

The later gasket still has holes sized to hold 1/4" screws - I've used enough of them to know that. That's what I was basing that statement on.

Did you find that those screws were indeed 5/16"-18, or are you just going from the FSM page? After all, even the FSM can be wrong (they kept recommending the use of GL-5 gear oil in the AX-15, vice the GL-3 that the thing really wants...)

 

Are you talking about the "later" one-piece gasket, like the fel-pro (blue)? Ummm because the grommets all look the same size to me, infact they would take a bolt a helluva alot bigger than 4 or 5/16th.

I own a '97 XJ and TJ, and both my pans indeed have 1/4" in the location in question. However, the TJ FSM says 5/16 should be there, while the XJ FSM says 1/4 should be. Weird.

I would expect a FSM to have some errors, but as far as what "the thing really wants" sounds more subjective to me than de-facto bolt size locations.

 

Hm. I wonder if the gasket stamping changed, then.

And "what the thing really wants" isn't subjective - the added sulphur as an EP lube in the GL-5 gear oil is antagonistic to yellow metal - and the synchroniser rings in the AX-15 are bronze. Nothing subjective about it - at elevated temperatures, sulphur attacks copper, and the synchronisers will dissolve. This is shown as "gold glitter" in the oil when you drain it.

"Performance synthetic" GL-5-rated gear oil often uses something other than sulphur as an EP lube - but sulphur is cheap, so it's still used in conventional oil.

GL-3 has low to no added sulphur, and is therefore just fine in the AX-15. You can run GL-5 in the BA-10, simply because the synchronisers in the BA-10 are aluminum and not bronze.

Nope - nothing subjective about it. Simple chemistry. (GL-5 is needed in the axles because they're under more stress, and they don't use yellow metal as a result.)

 

Interesting. So the transmission might last 100k vs 200k? How hot before that sulfur attacks the gearbox? 250F ish?