new tranny gasket leak

Well this is a fun story. I decided to change the transmission filter/oil, since Taurus are notorious for transmission breakdowns.

I let all the old oil drain, then changed the filter, cleaned the magnet inside the pan, very dirty. My old gasket was made of cork, and no leaks. My new gasket was of hard rubber with metal o-rings for the bolts. I read instructions for the gasket, they said not to put any sealant, that was FOOLISH.

So I'm adding 4L of oil to the transmission and it didn't occur to me to look under, in case of leakage. Ohhh man, did I have a fun time. I threw absorbent sand under the car, stuck the oil pan to catch the rest, then start re-tightening the bolts. The bolts supposed to be 12lbs, which is not that strong. Anyways, as I'm retightening, 2 bolts striped on me at the thread.

So how could I fix the 2 bolt problem? Bigger thread, bigger bolt? Anyone still using cork gasket? What sealant resists transmission oil?

Thanks

What year is it?I believe in 1996,Ford went to a reusable pan gasket which can be used over and over again.The black pangaskets in the filter kits are junk,they are so mangle up in the box so much they are hard to staigthen out.

Hmm, I believe that spec is 9-12 Nm, or 80-106 INCH-lbs. If you went to 12 foot-lbs, you probably overtorqued the bolts and possibly damaged the gasket in the process. Of course this doesn't help you in your current situation.

Did the bolt strip out, or did the threads in the transmission case strip out? If the case, your best bet may be to heli-coil the stripped holes, that way you can use the correct tranny pan bolts in any of the holes. Just be sure when you re-install, you use the proper torque.

As for the re-useable gaskets, my '93 Taurus SHO automatic had a reuseable gasket and I never had any problems with it leaking.

-Rod

Dropping the "click" type torque wrench or using it to loosen nuts and bolts can throw it way out of calibration.

It's a 96, and the gasket wasn't mangled up. It was straight/flat shrink wrapped to the cardboard. Thanks for the info Shrod, I didn't know about Heli-coil.
I'll remove the pan, and see if the gasket was compressed and see if I could buy the gasket seperate, save some money and see if there is a selection. If not, may I use the gasket with 'gasket maker'? Or just eliminate the rubber gasket and make my own?

Thanks