Expensive cleaners are a waste. Trust me on this. Just wear a mask.

 

I'm sure everyone has heard the saying "jeeps don't leak, they mark their territory". With that being said it depends on the severity of the leak. In my case by the time it's even near a quart low an oil change is well past due anyway. I addressed all issues on the top end. I'll only drop the pan if I replace the oil pump or want to look at the bearings etc. I'll replace the rms while I'm at it.

 

Be aware, that oven cleaner, can eat painted surfaces. It does however, work.

 

Thats actually why I decided to use engine degreaser, but I have never actually used oven cleaner on painted surfaces before (I do use it on bare-metal stuff all the time). Would it eat my valve cover paint, or the paint in the engine bay?

Whatever you end up using, long soak times and a stiff bristle brush does wonders. I have never really had great results with just water pressure, just breaking up the surface gunk to get the cleaner to penetrate deeper makes a huge difference.



EDIT:
RMS is a pretty easy fix if you have jackstands or are lifted. Get the body lifted away from the suspension a bit, drop the oil pan, remove 4 more bolts, and replace the seal.
If you use fel-pro gaskets for everything, it should go back together really easily with a dab of RTV to hold the gasket in place. Hardest parts are applying enough torque for the bearing cap bolts, and lining up the gasket when re-installing the oil pan. You might as well replace it anyway, benifits are that you can change the oil pan gasket at the same time. In fact, you might as well do all gaskets that are prone to leaking

Oil filter adapter, valve cover gasket, distributor gasket, oil pan + rms -- in that order.