Oil pan replacement

[johnoh]

There is oil on the ground directly under the rear of my 2001 prizm oil pan, and a drop visible where the pan seals to the engine, right at the rear passenger corner of the pan's seal. Does anyone know:

1) Is this likely to be a leak higher up on the engine? If so I can not find evidence of it

2) the tightening sequence to use when replacing the oil pan? Thought I'd replace the gasket but do not want to mess it up

[fishexpo101]

Possible that the oil is coming from the valvecover or timing chain tensioner and dripping down the block. Best bet is to clean the suspect area throughly and see where the oil starts to drip. If you have an oil spot on the ground - shouldn't take too long to see where the oil is coming from. Engine cleaner, shop rag soaked in solvent, etc. - whatever you can use to clean the old oil off and track where the oil drips. In really tough-to-see cases (slow leak) they make a UV reactive dye (florescent dye) that you add to the oil. After running the engine a bit - you use a UV wand to highlight where the oil is leaking.

No need to replace the oil pan, unless the flange between the pan and engine is severly distorted or the pan is otherwise damaged. If you meant gasket - there is no gasket - the pan itself is "glued" to the block with special adhesive. Something like 14 bolts hold the pan to the block - specs say 80in-lbs of torque, may need a touch of threadlock on the bolt threads as extra insurance from loosening over time. There is no "special" tightening pattern like a cylinder head - just tighten the bolts a little at a time - uniformly tightening them over a series of passes. Just guard against over-tightening - if you distort the pan "lip" you are likely to see a leak in the future.