So from what I can see and what I've read, this is a real pain in the arse. Most of what I'm reading says that if I can jack up the front end enough to take the front axle to full droop, that I should have enough clearance to drop the oil pan.

Anyone ever done this and have any words of wisdom or pitfalls to look out for? I'm going to try and tackle the RMS, oil pan gasket, and valve cover gasket this weekend on my wife's 99 XJ.

I'm guessing the valve cover gasket is bad, b/c i see some oil in a few spots up top, plus the starter is caked with oil/grime. But at the same time, I see oil residue on three sides of the oil pan, so I'm guessing I should go ahead and take care of that too, and if i've got to drop the pan, might as well replace the RMS. Thank God it's a 2-piece.

Thanks in advance for the help.

1/18/2011 10:58:27 AM

i cant remember if the XJ has the L adapter for oil filter but the o-ring inside of that went bad in mine and was causing what you are describing. It was a $4 part but $texas in patience to get the adapter off to change it.

Again - not sure if its true for the XJ but just sharing my experiences.

1/20/2011 3:18:55 AM

I did one on my MJ in a couple hours, but it was lifted, so i had more room. Definitely not a job to be afraid of. Im thinking the newer XJs dont have the oil filter adapter o ring that yomama mentioned is so prone to leak like the older 4.0s, but if yours has it I would say to go ahead and change that too.

IIRC i bought a "lower end gasket kit" that had all these seals included, plus more.

1/20/2011 12:43:36 PM

thanks for the heads up and the reassurance, it definitely makes me feel better about tackling it. I read about the oil filter adapter o-ring(s) too. I might as well. I'll put that last on the agenda. I've heard that breaking that T60 torx bolt loose is a tee-total-futher-mucker.

It's a '99, I haven't taken a close enough look to see whether or not it has an oil filter adapter.

Thanks again, and wish me luck.

1/21/2011 3:34:07 PM

Just keep dumping oil in then you dont ever have to change it.

1/21/2011 5:58:16 PM

^self changing oil

1/21/2011 9:24:45 PM

Got done Sunday afternoon, it went pretty well. It was still a pretty major project, nothing was easy, but it seems to have worked out OK. RMS went in like a champ. oil pan + gasket was a little more difficult to get back in and lined up. Gasket got un-seated on the way up, and my somewhat oily hands had to re-seat it. I hope that's not going to be a big deal.

I destroyed the tapered end of the steering stabilizer trying to remove it for oil pan clearance. I drove it to autozone to get a new one. Just FYI, w/o a steering stabilizer, death wobble sets in at about 60 mph

Valve cover gasket was easy, except the cheap plastic CCV elbow (or PCV, whatever you want to call it) broke and was a real bitch to get out. I replaced the elbow and the grommet (thank you O'Reilly's for having one of each in stock).

I panicked when I first cranked it up, b/c it started to smoke a bit. After inspection, it was just oil on the exhaust from me fiddling around underneath it, touching it and whatnot. It quit after a few minutes. Drove it around last night a bit, no puddles this morning or visible leaks yet. *fingers crossed*

[Edited on January 24, 2011 at 2:54 PM. Reason : .]

1/24/2011 2:52:49 PM

Great to hear it went well

1/24/2011 5:00:30 PM