My grandfather was a mechanic for years and he swears by form-a-gasket along with a new gasket. Anyway the way we always do it is to put form a gasket on the oil pan and place the gasket over that. Then take dental floss and tie through all of the holes so the gasket stays in place. Apply form-a-gasket to the block and put the oil pan with the gasket tied to it on the block and replace the bolts. The dental floss is easily removed and does not interfere with forming a seal. We have no leaks in any of our gaskets.

 

On the 4.0L rearmost bearing cap (rearmain) there is a groove that the seal needs to be depressed into. Getting this lined up properly by putting the gasket and pan up together is damn near impossible.

Ask Trekkr what his old (newly installed) gasket looked like when i dropped his down after it was installed this way. It was deformed and crushed.

 

I didn't read every post so someone may have already said this; odds are the oil pan gasket wasn't seated correctly in the rear bearing cap. what you described happened to me exactly. so I got to do the job twice. even though I knew the oil leak was coming from the pan gasket I replaced the RMS again anyway since I was in there. I used the fel-pro one piece pan gasket as well as fel pro RMS. I was generous with silicone and the gasket too. it hasn't leaked from there since. now I just need to change the valve cover gasket and the O-rings on the oil filter housing.

 

Don't know what year your buddies XJ is but if it is an 00 or 01 there is a step that can be overlooked. On the sides of the bearing cap (#7) where it attaches to the block you will see indentations that have to be filled with RTV prior to installing oil pan gasket. If this isn't done it will leak! Something worth looking into......

 

yeah the weird part is when i was under there lookin for the leak its coming out through the fly wheel cover. if it is the oil pan wouldnt it be dunning down the front of the cover

 

it will look like it's the RMS but the amount of oil running out will be rediculus.

 

It probably is the oil pan gasket. Its leaking real bad.

Pops, we'll definitely have to glue yours up on the block when we do your RMS.

 

yeah no **** .... ill tack weld the pan back on lol

 

Fishing line works great too. I just did my RMS, thought I paid enough attention, wrong, put the upper half in facing the wrong way. No leaks now