Replacement Oil Pan Brands - Other than OEM

[paulo57509]

Given that OEM may be no longer available, there are a lot of aftermarket oil pan brands out there - Spectra, Ultra-Power, Dorman, etc.

I think most are about the same in serviceability. But are there any to avoid? Granted, the make of engine may play a role in the rule.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Oil pans probably aren't difficult to make, and they usually aren't complicated, so there shouldn't be a problem with an aftermarket oil pan

They should be the same quality as the transmission pans they make, which are popular on cars that didn't come with a transmission drain plug and the aftermarket pan does.

 

[Chris142]

Oil pans probably aren't difficult to make, and they usually aren't complicated, so there shouldn't be a problem with an aftermarket oil pan

They should be the same quality as the transmission pans they make, which are popular on cars that didn't come with a transmission drain plug and the aftermarket pan does.

I put a dorman pan on a truck at work. It fit ok but the drain plug is completely different than the one. Hopefully I never have to replace the plug.

 

[marc1]

I replaced the oil pan in my Impala this summer. The original one had a stripped oil plug with an oversize "cutter" plug installed at some point in its life. This was never something I liked and had started to leak. I was doing the rear main seal as well so it was time to deal with the oil pan itself. I bought an ATP / Pioneer. It is a really nice pan, pretty sure the steel gauge is even thicker than the OE pan, it is beefy, has decent factory styled baffling and the powder-coated finish was excellent. Shape was almost the same as the OE one, a slightly different contour down to the sump and the sump itself was maybe .25" deeper. Lots of room in the Impala cradle for the different contour so no issues and .25" lower is not a concern, other things hang lower on the car so ground clearance isn't compromised at all. There will be a tiny increase in volume as a result with this new pan so a little extra oil goes in (I estimated 5 Imperial oz.) and since I check with the dipstick that will be fine. Things that were a little more problematic were the rear pan rail was thicker than OE, no problem with the fit between the block and crank register but the gasket needed to be trimmed a bit. It is fine, no leaks and the RTV bead gave me extra confidence for the less than ideal gasket fit on this thicker rail. There are absolutely no leaks from this pan now. The other issue is the drain plug is an M12x1.75 metric unit. The pan came with a new high quality plug with the dished washer style gasket but... a metric fastener on a 1967 domestic kind of bothers me but not the end of the world. The pan isn't OE anymore anyway so, no big deal. I do my own oil changes so I am aware of the different plug and if I go to buy a mag plug I know the size (none of my mag plugs in my existing assortment are metric). The car is not for sale but if I ever sell it, I will pass that info on to the new owner as part of the "here's what I have done with the car" discussion anyway. Bottomline... ATP / Pioneer has a good pan in this application and I would use their products again if need be.

ATP Automotive Graywerks 103036 Engine Oil Pan

ATP Automotive Graywerks 103036 Engine Oil Pan

atpautomotive.com

 

[Soft Cars]

I concur with ATP. They do a great job making the 3800 upper intake manifold.

 

[Lubener]

Given that OEM may be no longer available, there are a lot of aftermarket oil pan brands out there - Spectra, Ultra-Power, Dorman, etc.

I think most are about the same in serviceability. But are there any to avoid? Granted, the make of engine may play a role in the rule.

Any of those will be fine and likely will outlast the vehicle.

 

[Kira]

Ford 5R55E in a Ranger comes with a sheet metal pan with no drain plug.
Amazon offered both new and used Dorman replacements.
I chose the A new one was delivered; made of thicker metal in a grey finish. It bore no markings.

 

[cptbarkey]

I would buy an OEM ebay or junkyard oil pan before going aftermarket. If its composite though, gooood luck.

 

[Capt W]

I would buy an OEM ebay or junkyard oil pan before going aftermarket. If its composite though, gooood luck.

Fully concur. All the listed brands are simply re-boxed units from Uncle Xi's Oil Pan Corporation of China. No thanks.

 

[DuckRyder]

if its a vehicle they service (IE an American V8) Moroso, Milodon, Holley, Edelbrock, ETC.

 

[Kira]

All the listed brands are simply re-boxed units from Uncle Xi's Oil Pan Corporation of China.

And where do we think "Detroit" sources their pans? just askin'.

 

[paulo57509]

Thanks for the input. Someone recently asked me about this. You just reinforced what I suspected.

 

[GMBoy]

Let me tell you my horror story with a DORMAN oil pan for my 06 Sierra Denali 6.0L. Bought the pan off rockauto. Installed it and immediately was leaking bad around the cooler line area. All new gaskets mind you. Took off the oil cooler line and found that the passageways were completely drilled out wrong and looked like it was done by hand it was so sloppy..it was not aligning with the gasket holes 100% so the oil just flowed between the pan and gasket to the ground...this was not readily apparant when looking at it before install. I should have looked closer but who would of thought....Removed the pan and looking closer found just how bad the quality was. I am a member of the Dorman Embassadors which is just a place for mechanics to be able to talk with Dorman engineers and give feedback etc. I contacted them and they sent me a NEW pan overnight mail and they wanted the bad one to study. Well the replacement looked the same as the one I had except there was a ton of filings all in the pan from the drilling. I was not comfortable with this level of quality so sent BOTH pans back and got an OEM one. Dorman has really gone downhill and I tell them all the time....an oil pan is not a hard thing to make but believe me I will not be using many if any Dorman parts unless it's their Chrysler 3.6 oil cooler, spark plug non foulers and simple stuff. I stopped using anything electrical from them a few years ago.

 

[Soft Cars]

A long time ago I bought an aftermarket oil pan for a 1970 Mercury Cougar. The only one available at the time was a polished chrome Erson. Everything was chromed, including the gasket surfaces. That oil pan leaked like a sieve. Little did I know at the time that I was supposed to remove the chrome off the gasket surfaces before installing the oil pan. I thought it was ready to go out of the box.

 

[skippermatt]

Had a Dorman pan on a Camaro with a sbc, it worked fine for holding the oil, and it fit great, but the threads were metric m12x1.25, and I wanted to put a magnetic plug in, didn’t realize the threads were different until my 1/2”-20 magnetic plug that was in my old pan didn’t fit, ended up getting a magnetic plug for a Prius and it worked great The paint was also thin and chipped very quickly then started to rust. Now I use moroso on all my old cars, but there all older American v8s, newer vehicles get oem new or used pans if there going on an ls in a truck or a Honda or something like that.

 

[zzyzzx]

I think for my Alero the only replacement pan that has a drain plug is the Dorman one. My only real issue with it is that it's painted (or something) where as the other ones aren't. I'm not sure I want a pan where the INSIDE of the pan is painted.

 

[The Critic]

Recently needed a new lower oil pan for a Toyota 2GR engine. Had to order 3 Dorman pans before finding one that was passable. On one of the pans, the threads pulled out of the oil pan (steel) when I removed the drain plug: