Rep Power: 0

Felpro gasket didnt last 4 month
torqued to 8.7ftlbs and is the 4th time to replace the oil pan gasket this year. I'm doing everything now oil pump o ring which looked fine still and Crankshaft seal those 2 honda genuine, the new gasket I got was through ebay and said made in Japan not genuine but will see. I'm guessing my oil pan may be the problem needing a new one since the surface does not look even or flat. Also I forgot to get hondabond 4 since I don't want to use any other anymore and will see tomorrow if I can go to the dealer again. I'm also having problems with starter motor which I took apart and the power steering pump. 05 civic lx

 
Rep Power: 0

I did mine earlier in the year in order to change out the oil pump O ring, and other seals. I bought the honda OEM one and have had no trouble at all, make sure to place RTV in the required areas. I am only a home DIY mechanic, but it went OK. These non Honda gaskets (fel pro included) just don't seal properly. My car has almost 300K miles and does not leak one drop of oil on the driveway. You mentioned it may not look flat, I don't know how it would warp. Mine , the old gasket was really caked on there and it took me a good hour or more to clean it all off. I am assuming your car actually came with a pan gasket. Some of the 7th gen do not even have a gasket, it is strictly a RTV seal all around. Good luck.

 
Rep Power: 512

The D17A2 (01-05 EX) utilizes only an RTV gasket.

The D17A1 (01-05 DX/LX) uses an actual gasket

 
Rep Power: 0

Another thing, on the LX do you use RTV all around the oil pan or just corners. Only between gasket and pan or also the top of engine sides?

 
Rep Power: 0

Bought a new oil pan the old one was uneven bent and that was the main problem. Got the oil pump and oil pan installed now. My next headache is setting the timing belt back on and I did some marks on the crankshaft but I'm guessing It was useless now and I didn't take off the top cover yet just the lower side. My question is do I need to take the whole valve cover out again to set the timing belt again in place ? Is it possible to take top side timing cover without removing valve cover? I did that with genuine gasket, water pump and belt new this year and all went so well and I don't want to ruin the valve cover gasket. can I reuse it? This is so much trouble all should had been set from a begining and I fail without knowing anything at all. I didn't change tensioner and I need new starter motor and power steering pump too. This is costing too much

 
Rep Power: 512

There are marks on the lower timing cover you use to line up the timing belt. I used to use a flashlight to line up the V-notch and point to cast a pointer shadow on the timing mark on the crankshaft pulley. I'd recommend having the valve cover off. Makes life easier. It's all of 5 bolts, and you should theoretically have everything out of the way to do so. That, and it's easier to verify the camshaft is set to TDC with it off.

 
Rep Power: 0

wow, how does a pan get bent? Did the previous owner run over a 6x6 piece of timber multiple times? There are really good vids on YT regarding civic timing belts: pierced asian and ratchets and wrenches come to mind. Your car it seems was terribly neglected (stating the obvious I know). Good luck.

 
Rep Power: 0

I'm done, thanks you all who shared that knowledge. Everything looks good so far and still have other many things to fix. I cleaned and sanded the starter motor and still failing to start just not as much as before, selenoid activates and the starter motor fails to ignite and I wonder what makes that happen. The starter makes such beautiful sound now like smoothly not so loud noise as before. I need a power steering pump also.
What happened with the stock oil pan was that the first time I changed the gasket I thought the studs washers were bind to it and that I believe caused the pan to bend and also that I torqued them to over 11ft lbs and that damaged the pan and I couldn't tell so it kept going bad when I added other gaskets. That's all