pinhole in oil pan

What's the best way to fix a pinhole in the bottom of an oil pan? Braze or silver solder?

This is the second replacement oil pan I have bought for my Super M. First one was off a Farmall 450 and didn't have petcock holes. This one is perfect except for one little pin hole right in the bottom. I'm not going to blow another $30-$40 on shipping on one little pin hole...

I would do neither. Clean it well and take it to a muffler shop and have a small weld put over it. Unless you know how to use a wire welder. Ellis

I've had pin holes in the oil pans of almost every car and truck I own. Subaru, Chevy, Ford, Isuzu, Kia, etc. I fixed them all by cleaning down to bare metal at the bad spot. Then putting JB Weld epoxy over the area and then priming with Zero-Rust. Did my Subaru 11 years ago an hasn't leaked a drop since. Did my 86 Chevy diesel Blazer around 8 years ago and it too has been fine. Just got done doing the on my 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan. Oil pan and gas filler pipe.

When you take an electric wire-brush to the leak area, you're apt to find more thin spots and holes. Most I've fixed one little hole turns into a dozen after brushing.

I have used a rubber washer and sheet metal screw if the pan had
enough steel in the area to support the pressure on the threads.

Mark

If the pan is off I would have it wire welded on inside and repaint outside it would look like new.

There's no such this as "one pin hole" in something like that - there's one that's leaking and probably several more spots that are about to. So don't fix just the one, put it back together and think you're all done!

I brazed mine.

Being an oil pan it's a bit thicker than some other tanks so I'd probably braze it. That being said, I've also had good luck using a small diameter, low melting temp solder to repair corroded places where there were multiple pin holes that showed up after cleaning the area to repair the one pin hole that origionally needed repair. In that case the sheet metal on the tank was relatively thin anyway, as compared to most oil pans, so I knew it wouldn't take the heat needed to braze it without melting completely and forming large holes that wouldn't be easily repairable. In that instance I used a really fine/small diameter solder designed for doing electronics, but I have even used standard 50/50 solder like you'd use for nonpotable, copper water pipes. As far as brazing rod, just use as small of a diameter rod as you can get to limit the amount of heat needed to be put into the repair to get the rod to melt before the base metal in the pan does.

The main thing doing either type repair is to get the area as clean as possible so the braze or solder will bond to the metal/Tin and flow out to give a good repair. At one point in time Dad had some nearly pure muratic acid that worked great for leaning things prior to soldering or brazing. Nowdays I use a dilluted muratic acid that is designed for cleaning out piping systems. Although it isn't as good as the pure stuff it will remove any oil, grease, etc that tends to the repair metal from bonding. Beyond that all I can say is good luck.

For some reason my name showed up as NCWane instead of NCWayne like it should have done. Never seen this happen before. I'm looking as I place this post it's showing up corrctly in the name portion of the reply screen.....don't know what happened......

Drain the oil, replace the plug & braze it.

(quoted from post at 14:10:41 05/22/12) What's the best way to fix a pinhole in the bottom of an oil pan? Braze or silver solder?

This is the second replacement oil pan I have bought for my Super M. First one was off a Farmall 450 and didn't have petcock holes. This one is perfect except for one little pin hole right in the bottom. I'm not going to blow another $30-$40 on shipping on one little pin hole...

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Sounds like an Ebay experience.

I would lean toward brazing because it gets the metal hot enough to burn the oil out of it to get a good bond. Do the same for other thin spots you find.

I know what you guys are thinking, but there really is only this ONE pin hole.

The oil pan is clean and solid overall. No rust anywhere.

It looks like something "pecked" its way through from the inside.

I just did the one on my car after about a ten year battle with Jb weld not holding up after a couple of years. I cleaned it off with sandpaper, carb cleaner and then blew out the pan with compressed air to get any oil away from the pin hole. This is on the car after I drained the oil for two days. Just hit if with a propane torch and touched it with acid core solder and it was done. Worked perfectly and hasn't leaked since. The solder actually worked on the underside of the pan too because it formed a perfectly shaped half moon drop over the repair. Works great.

I used silver solder and the surface needs to be clean and use the flux. Hal

Used a sheet metal screw, the ones with the rubber washer. it will stop the leak, then sand around the screw and clean it with gasoline or brake cleaner, then use jb weld to cover the screw and problem solved.

tried to repair a pin hole on a massey harris 33 and when it cooled, I had 20 little cracks instead of one hole. The cheap metal would not take heat.

thank god for jb weld.. but..
it must be clean..

and

it must be clean

and

it must be clean

and then it will hold forever.

It did. A bubble of air will turn moisture acidic
(or maybe alkaline) and eat it's way through.

Use an abrasive wheel to take it to bare metal and braze the hole from the inside using flux. There should be a spec of braze showing on the outside from the wetting of the surface. When the brass flows it is complete. Jim

I had the same thing on an oil pan, I just brought it down to bare metal and brazed it from the inside. Just a little bit may flow through the pin hole to the outside of the pan, if so just file or sand it smooth and your done and will hold for years to come.

I opened up the hole a bit, to 1/8 inch.. Used a pop-rivet and silicone gasket material.