****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is the second Crown oil pan I had to purchase for my 1975 Jeep CJ5 with the 304 V8. The first came dented and scratched badly on the flanges, so I sent it back and did a repair to my old pan. Since then, the repairs I did to my original oil pan did not work out, so I took a chance and ordered another one. This one was not dented, no shipping damage, but the build quality is absolutely awful. The pan has gouges all over the sealing surface of the flanges, contacts the front and rear main bearing caps slightly, and all of the smaller bolt holes on the driver’s side were off about 3/16 of an inch, so they had to be filed out to get it to fit. The bearing main caps still hit slightly but since there is no movement, I decided to make the modifications needed to the bolt holes and install it anyway. Another huge negative is the fact that the drain plug configuration prevents 21 ounces of old oil from draining when you change the oil. Ridiculous. They did not duplicate the sump by the drain plug in the OEM pan, and welded a huge nut on the inside of the pan for the drain plug. Now they use a drain plug with rubber on it, rather than a metal crush washer, to seal the sloppily engineered (overstatement) drain. Unfortunately, there are no other oil pan options for my engine unless I want to pay $600-$700 for a racing oil pan, or roll the dice again and buy a used pan for more than this one cost. I will update this review with my experience once I get some miles on this – not sure if it will leak or not. I’m giving it one star because even if it does not leak, all the issues I pointed out make this the worst oil pan I’ve ever seen. You should not have to spend hours modifying a part from a major parts company. I do not recommend this oil pan unless you have no other options, are ready to do quite a bit of rework to get it to work and don’t mind leaving the better part of a quart of oil in the engine every time you change the oil.
