'slightly' crushed oil pan 4.0L

Guess I need to fab a engine skid plate now. Coming back from bird hunting last night and I managed to get high-centered on a pretty good size boulder. I ended up rearanging the bottom of my engine oil pan. It is now about 1" shorter than before.

How much clearance is there between the oil pump pickup and the bottom of the oil pan? I am slightly concerned that I may have also bent/damaged the oil pump pickup. It appears from the FSM that the pickup is located at the front of the pan, is this correct?

Anyone have a spare 4.0L oil pan?

How about ideas for a engine skid?

Thanks!

The oil pump pickup is in the rear of the pan -- the deepest portion. If you knocked that up an inch, it's safe to assume that you also bent the oil pump pickup.

That what I am assuming, so off comes the pan tomorrow.

Any problems rebending the bent pickup/strainer? In reading the FSM there is a big caution about moving the pickup tube within the pump body; if you do it states that a replacement tube and strainer assembly must be installed to assume a airtight seal. Anyone have any more info on this?

Thanks.

StevePSD said:

Any problems rebending the bent pickup/strainer? In reading the FSM there is a big caution about moving the pickup tube within the pump body; if you do it states that a replacement tube and strainer assembly must be installed to assume a airtight seal. Anyone have any more info on this?

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Obviously, the pickup tube has to be an air-tight fit into the pump body or the pump will lose prime and not suck oil up from the sump. The tube is a tight press fit into the pump body for this reason. What I would be concerned about is the possibility of disturbing the seal in an effort to rebend the pickup tube.

Without a known-good example for comparison, I don't know how you can verify if your pickup is okay. If it has an obvious crimp in it you'll know it's bad, but what if you can't see a problem? It will still work (assuming it works now), but if it is bent up there will be more clearance between the intake and the bottom of the sump. That could simply mean that you need to be careful to maintain the oil level at or near FULL.

Being the obsessive-compulsive that I am, I think if I were going for a new oil pan I'd spring for a new pump as well. I believe the stock replacements come with the pickup already installed (the Melling high flow pump does NOT include the pickup, or so I've been told).