Here's the method I used to stop a leaking pan that I posted on another site, I attempted to fix it several times with no luck, I tried everyone else suggestions and nothing worked, continued leaking. The good news is you have a real Ford Gasket which is thicker and better than any i found, so you can ignore that part, but everything else applies and finally worked for me. And it's been two months and still no spots under the car
"I've had nothing but trouble try to get my C4 pan to stop leaking. I,ve tried everything that's been suggested here and I couldn't get it to stop. But I finally did and thought I would share what I did to finally get it to stop.
I've tried six different times with different gaskets and methods suggested. My pan is original because my car is original. I've tried all different torques specs, tried lubelocker gaskets, cork gaskets of different qualities, synthetic gaskets, and different torque specs and by feel as others suggested. Nothing worked. And I didn't want to use RTV or any other silicones to stop it cause you shouldn't have to.
I tried again and bought another cork gasket. This one came and it was much different than any I had received previously. First, it was all real cork and didn,t have that flimsy rubbery feel that the others I,ve received have, it was also a lot thicker than others. My pan is dead straight, of course this was taken care of after the second attempt with things I read, so that was never the issue. This was of course making sure there were no dimples cause from over tightening the pan at the pan bolt holes, checked every edge with a straight edge previously and pounded it flat using wood pieces to get it to lay perfectly flat.
Ok, for install, obviously I cleaned the hell out of everything as I always did using brake cleaner and made sure everything was dry, including the transmission where the pan will sit, no fluid leaking down on to the edge. Installed the pan and made sure gasket was square (which of course I always did before). Hand tightened all the bolts as tight as I could.
Now, I,ve looked everywhere for people telling me actual torque specs, no one will list it. The ford shop manual says 12 - 16 foot pounds which everyone?s says is just too tight, which I believe to be true as well from trying it before. 12 foot pounds is 144 inch pounds, a lot. Since I,m not good with "feel" I wanted actual numbers.
Here's how I beat it, I torqued the bolts to 60 inch pounds in a crosscross pattern. I let it sit for 2 hours to sort of mold to the shape. Then I torqued it again to 95 inch pounds in a crisscross pattern again and let sit for 24 hours, again forming to the shape. Last thing, torqued them to 125 inch pounds in same crisscross pattern and watched the gasket for a slight bludge which it just started to do at each bolt. Again I let it sit for 24 hours before filling with fluid.
Filled it with fluid and it's been a week and no leaks, I finally got it.
So I thought I would share what worked for me because I know a lot of people suffer from this same thing and have trouble getting it under control.
Hope this helps others in the future."
Jason
