I resigned from my job and turned-in the company car. My 23 y/o WJ was garaged (for free) and unused most of the time for the last five years, except for a couple weekends a month. Needless to say there was not much need for services during the time-span. Of course basics like battery, lighting, fluids and tires were checked periodically. It was not the driest garage but was better than nothing. Ground level moisture did more harm than I realized - as I found significant corrosion on things like rear brake lines, gas tank skid plate/shield and worse - the oil pan!

With the garage queen up on the ramps, and with all tools and supplies at the ready, I crept underneath to drain the old motor oil. Before putting a wrench to the plug I was shocked to find laminated layers of the steel oil pan flaking/peeling off in big rusty nacho-sized flakes. After flaking away the larger pieces I noticed a moist bloom of oil on the passenger side bottom of the pan. After a few gentle taps along various surfaces I determined by the sounds that it was paper thin at the weak spot. I knew I had to be cautious when attempting to remove the drain plug, so I firmly but gently torqued the drain plug to loosen, then to tighten, then to loosen again, never applying more than ~25 foot-pounds. All the while I monitored the pan for any flexing in the "thin" area. There was no movement of the plug nor flexing/buckling of the pan - but the bloom got larger so I stopped. I need a new pan.

Rock Auto has a few pans, none are OEM but they do have the Mopar oil pan gasket w/windage tray. I called the stealership parts department to find Mopar oil pans for the 4.7L engine have "left the party" as-of 2020.

Naturally I'm concerned about quality and fitment of non-OEM replacement parts, so please, if any of you have had to replace your oil pan with aftermarket on your ~20 year old Jeep V8 then will you please advise as-to better brands and any pitfalls you might have suffered during/after the replacement process?

 

My xj pan has rust all over it and oil leaks through in a few spots, I slathered white 100% silicone over the whole thing. That was 2 years back, no leaks