Thread: How on earth do I get the td5 sump back on?

remove crossmember, knock one of the ball joints out I do drivers side and move rod lengthwise with car, jack engine up with the crank pulley to give better access, glue gasket on with superglue spots, use sikaflex or similar on timing cover sealing surface...pain in the bum but doable with few swear words

Did you remember to note the fitted locations of the sump bolts. there are different lengths. Can't remember which ones go where, too long ago, RAVE is your friend. Bob

You dont need to remove a ball joint.
Just jack up the front of the car a bit. As the vehicle raises, the track rod will stay in place with the suspension allowing you to get the pan into position.

Originally Posted by Barefoot Dave

You dont need to remove a ball joint.
Just jack up the front of the car a bit. As the vehicle raises, the track rod will stay in place with the suspension allowing you to get the pan into position.

Agreed. Just keep trying. Jack up the car a little more, swear, curse. I "glued" the gasket to the bottom of the engine with some loctite blue max.
You will get it eventually.
Then have a beer or twenty!!
Regards
Robbo

Zip ties people zip ties....

jack the front end of the car (i usualuy just whip off a bump stop and stick the jack in there)
Find some zipties that fit through the holes in the sump and the gasket but need to be pushed hard into the holes of the block.
Preloctite your bolts
slide the sump into position with the gasket more or less in place held by 4 zipties in the corners that are "looped backwards"
put the sealastic where the manual tells you to
slide a heap of the preselected zipties up through the holes in the sump and the gasket and into theblock holes (you may need to turn them like screws)
when you have all the other holes filled remove the 4 zip ties from the corners.

put the 4 bolts in the corners and do them up 3 turns
untwist one ziptie at a time (in the correct sequence for the sump bolt installation)
install the bolt and do it up 3 turns

When you have all the bolts in eyeball around the gasket with a mirror on a stick or endo scope, make sure its still on the pan correctly and you didnt miss any holes with the bolts

Crank them up in the correct order and then torque them up.

Done, takes 10 minutes
(oh then you remove the jack and reinstall the bump stop if you did it that way, if you forget this bit the handling gets a bit funny and people complain about the ride quality)

Love your work guys. I worked out the jack up the front bit to get it out but I love the bump stop tip. Do you do both sides? Or dour one do the job? Cheers Matt

The other thing that will do your head in is the quality of the gasket.
I went through every one that MR had in stock, looking for one that wasn't warped after battling with the first one unsuccessfully for hours. There was just no way the bolt holes would line up.
When you buy one, lay it out on a table first and see if it is twisted and warped.

Got mine form Karcraft and this the second one from there. Last one wasn't in the car. It was on a stand.

Anyway I lay my gaskets out in the Sun and they flatten out pretty good. Seems to work.

Hopefully get it all back together tomorrow.