After both my engine pans had the front ears broken off from engine vibration, I decided to soft mount my new pans on the engine side using two fender washers and two 1/8 inch thick rubber washers. This washer-rubber-pan-rubber-washer stack at the pan mounting points has cut down engine to frame vibration and hopefully extended the life of my engine pans. Been working for three years now.
Think about this a bit. The existing holes are clearance holes. If you thread them then you'll have to use larger bolts and nuts, which would not do well on a points car...I was going to say that adding a rubber washer should help on vibration some. I remember another thread here about attaching the pans and som one tapped the holes on the frame and could just screw in bolts from underneath while you’re already there, no need for third hand. You can always use nut and bolt even with this method if it’s a points car. I plan on doing this myself.
On the frame side, I tapped the holes in the frame for bolts (I forget size) and install from the bottom. Makes it a one old man job.
I remember another thread here about attaching the pans and som one tapped the holes on the frame and could just screw in bolts from underneath while you’re already there, no need for third hand. You can always use nut and bolt even with this method if it’s a points car. I plan on doing this myself.
As mentioned in post #9.
This is the way I do it too. I leave the frame screws a bit loose and tighten everything up snug once all they're all started. Go back a few miles later and confirm that the pan bolts are still tight, sometimes the oil pan sheet steel will hang up on a thread on the bolt and what seems tight isn't completely bottomed out.Hello Norm--I have found the easiest way to install engine pans is to first attach them to the frame. Then loosen the appropriate engine pan bolts, bend the pan slightly to fit the slots onto those loosened bolts. Tighten the pan bolts to 10 ft/lbs.