It's been a while since my last post, but I have had severe financial problems and have not been able to do much to my max. Anyways, I was chaging the oil the other day and looked into the engine oil pan. Wow, what a mess! The build up since '96 looks substancial, and it seems as if a cleaning might be needed. My question is: Is it ok to remove and clean the pan, as long as a replace the gasket and bolts? I was worrying about a possible leak and/or compression problem. By the way, I have a 96 5spd w/ 119k mi. and I had a compression (leak down test) at 117k mi. and all 6 cyclinders are near spec!! VQs are absolutly amazing engines!!

 

Its an easy job. If you replace the gasket alone, you should be fine. Bolt replacement isnt really neccesary. Just dont overtorque them!