Fixing a leaky oil pan gasket is a simple job. Put the vehicle on a lift. Drain the oil. Zip off the bolts holding the oil pan to the engine block. Remove the old gasket. Clean the mating surfaces. Slip on a new gasket and bolt the pan back in place. Total time is typically less than three hours.
Well, that is unless you have a diesel truck like the 2015-2019 6.7-liter Ford Power Stroke found in Ford’s F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550s. The repair time to fix upper oil pan leaks can be as much as 16 hours in a pro-level shop.
The reason for the huge labor involved is because these 6.7-liter engines have a two-piece oil pan. The lower portion is the 13-quart engine oil reservoir while the upper part is a structural aluminum casting bolted to the engine block that adds rigidity to the bottom end.
Ford used RTV silicone to seal the upper oil pan to the engine block. Over time, the RTV breaks down and oil begins to leak out. Or, another contributing factor to the leaking upper oil pan is failure to replace the Closed Crankcase Ventilation (CCV) filter, which can create high pressure in the system, blowing out the RTV sealant. (This filter should be replaced every 100K miles—or sooner.)
Whatever the cause, the challenge, as noted earlier, is getting access to the upper oil pan where the leaks originate. The upper oil pan is not easy to access even with the truck on a hoist.
What many diesel repair shops do to make the job go faster is to pull the engine from the chassis so the technician has easy and unobstructed access to the entire engine along with the upper oil pan. That’s how Mobile Diesel Service (MDS) in Sutherlin, Oregon, handles the repair process.
“We also shy away with using RTV as the primary sealant like Ford did,” says Wyatt Gidcumb, the shop’s lead diesel tech who handled this repair. “That would just fail down the road and the customer would be facing the same leak issues once again. So we install an SPE Motorsport Upper Oil Pan Gasket Kit. Their kit replaces the factory RTV seal with an actual modern-day gasket instead of using a bead of silicone to seal the upper oil pan to the block.”
“The aluminum framework acts as a crush limiter and gasket retainer, ensuring consistent sealing pressure across the entire pan, explains SPE Motorsports’ Chance Sabala.
“Our 6.7-liter Power Stroke upper oil pan kit also includes all required transfer port gaskets for the oil pressure and suction passages that run through the upper pan, along with alignment dowels that hold the gasket in position and assist with installation.”
SPE says eliminating the need to run RTV around the entire pan (small dabs of it are still used at the front/rear corners) make the installation smoother and cleaner when working under the truck or on an engine stand.
“When the engine is out, we always inspect the manifolds, body mounts, injector grommets, and other items while they are out in the open and easy to fix if needed,” says service manager Andrew Smalley.
“The cab mounts, for example, on this customer’s truck, were shot, and there were several leaking injectors and leaking around the oil fill tube. So we replaced the mounts with an S&B Filters Ford body Mount kit (81-1003) and took care of the other leaks.”
We looked over Gidcumb’s shoulder while he installed the SPE Upper Oil Pan gasket kit on a customer’s 2015 F-250 Crew Cab 4×4 that had the engine pulled to expedite the repair process. The images below follow the SPE Motorsport’s instructions that come with the gasket kit.
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