Replacing oil pan & oil Baffle?

BEEMAW17

MEMBER
1998 FORD WINDSTAR
3.8L
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
207,000 MILES

98 Windstar threw a rod which knocked some holes and grooves s in the oil pan and oil baffle- the oil baffle has the number 2 3T 7 156 on it. I can't see any welds where the baffle was ever connected to the oil pan. 1-man mechanic shop going to install remanufactured engine. Ordered the new pan (and, I thought, baffle) from O'Reilly Auto Parts, but only the pan was delivered-no baffle. AutoZone doesn't have the baffle either. Ford dealership says Oil Pan used to come including the baffle, but neither are available through Ford any more. O'Reilly manager says oil baffle is not necessary, you can leave it out. Ford dealership parts man suggested my mechanic bang it straight with a hammer, then drill holes and pop-rivet the baffle to the oil pan; I am leery of making holes in the pan. When I told Ford dealership parts man that O'Reilly says the baffle is not necessary, he said "it probably isn't necessary, the oil would only slosh up on the crank shaft and it wouldn't hurt anything." What should we do?

7 Replies

HMAC300

MECHANIC
48,601 POSTS

Put the new oil pan with no mods. The baffle is used normally to keep oil from foaming doing hard turns similar to what a race car does. You aren't doing that.

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Monday, August 17th, 2015 AT 12:14 PM

BEEMAW17

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4 POSTS

You are correct, I'm a great-grandma, not a race-car driver, and I love my little van, Miss Windy, and want to keep her rolling a few more years.
So I will tell the mechanic to install the new oil pan without any baffle.
Thank you so much for your help.
Best of luck to you,
Barbara

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Monday, August 17th, 2015 AT 1:10 PM

BEEMAW17

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4 POSTS

Can you tell me how the oil pan baffle was attached to the oil pan, originally? There are no visible weld marks on pan or baffle, and no holes
that match each other. Does it just sit in there loose? I'm getting a lot of
flak from people saying that there must be a baffle in the oil pan. The damaged one could probably be hammered into good enough shape to use, but I don't see any way of attaching it. HELP!

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Monday, August 17th, 2015 AT 7:46 PM

HMAC300

MECHANIC
48,601 POSTS

It's probably spot welded in you'll just see little round dents if anything. Don't worry about it and put the new one in

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Tuesday, August 18th, 2015 AT 6:12 AM

BEEMAW17

MEMBER
4 POSTS

Thanks for the reply. In the meantime, my gentleman friend who worked for Chrysler 40 years and has built many drag race cars - mostly Dodge, no Fords - came to town to see if he could help me, and he said that the baffle had been screwed to something (I forget the name) just above the oil pan - but the oil pan is also screwed to it, below the baffle. Then he
put the baffle on the driveway and drove over it with his Jeep. That flattened it back out and we took it to the mechanic who's replacing the engine, and in his limited English he said, "yes, yes, I can use it."
So, fingers crossed, hope everything else goes smoothly.

Another question: Do you have to remove the engine to fix the transmission in a 1998 Windstar van 3.8 engine? My friend said you didn't have to remove it from the Chrysler product "east-west" engines he worked on, but he didn't know about Ford. I'm just thinking ahead to the only big item not under warranty when the van is running again. Thanks again.