Just finished the job. I meant to say 89 in/lbs. I will start with that and see how it goes. I just found several torque specs on this forum and it seems that 106 in/lbs is another spec that is often used.

Transmission fluid is pretty dirty after 86,000 miles of "hard" use. I think I will just follow maintenance intervals for hard use given in the service manual (50,000 miles) to be on a safe side. I have no idea how some don't change their transmission fluid at all.

 

8 lbs foot for those pan bolts

see bottom pan

http://transmissionkits.com/wp-conte.../IS-51000E.pdf

 

I inspected the pan several days ago and it was showing signs of leaking. When I looked at it today it turned out to be leaking some fluid. I tried to torque it again to 89 in/lbs and it turned out that the bolts were nowhere close to 89 in/lbs. I assume that when the gasket was cold and new I torqued it to specs, but after driving around for sometime it warmed up and became thinner. Is there a special procedure for tightening these bolts? Something like install, drive around a little bit to bring the car to operating temperature, then torque to specs again.

 

That is a good practice, but I’m OCD and I check them every oil change. My C4 automatic in my ‘66 Meteor the bolts always loosened up, so it’s been standard procedure ever since.

 

i have done 2 of these lately and had both start to leak again found that i had to take a flat end bar and a hammer and set the edges of the pan to get it too seal seems the space between the bolt holes i found rolls down i think from over tighting the bolts maybe ? also tapped the edge of the pan up with the hammer not hard just too take the twist out of the pan hope this make sense but in downing it ,it stop the leaking and all is good so far , also thats using the stock style gaskets ,NOT the cork ,

 

Makes perfect sense, the pan distorts at the bolt holes and won’t seal properly when you reinstall it. A socket and a hammer with a gentle tap will resolve that .

 

How about a drop of blue loctite on each bolt, to keep them from loosening?

 

That is also highly recommended, as you won’t be dropping the pan for another 100,000 miles if at all.

 

In post #4 OldBlue was saying wipe the old gasket down. I do the same, but I also wipe/dry off all of the bolts. If you torque a oily bolt, then you definitely way over torqued them. Torque values are always for dry bolts, I learned that one the hard way!

 

Bolt holes on the pan rail shouldn't distort because the gasket/seal has shouldered holes and you're using a flanged headed bolt.
Loctite can work if holes and bolts are completely free of an oil.
Please only a little of the blue stuff on the bolts.