SR20DET Upper Pan Fitment Issue

[SR-S14Slidin]

Hello everyone,

I was curious if anyone has possibly had a similar problem to me. I am trying to put the upper pan back on my motor, but it doesn't want to fully press onto the back of the block. I had the motor fully balanced decked etc. Im curious if the alignment pins would maybe be takin out to do all that. Im looking for any input on what the issue may be. Ive tried 4 upper pans so I know its not the oil pan. Heres a picture its a decent gap Im dealing with.

[fliprayzin240sx]

Did you check to make sure there's nothing on the way? There might be an extra dowel pin somewhere, causing it to not sit all the way.

[Srsil]

If u put arp studs in it u need to trim two f the rear ones down i cant remeber what side

[SR-S14Slidin]

Yes I have ARP Mains Eagle Rods CP Pistons etc Ive been working on doing a fully built motor an are you talking about the little (lips) Idk what to call them on the inside of the pan

[SR-S14Slidin]

FML guess im machining the oil pan

[Srsil]

Dont do that yet take grease smear on the top of the back 4 studs find out what 2 are hitting the take them out of the block takerhem to a machine shop have them shave or use a lathe and shave basicly from the bottom part of the allen key off way easier cuz the oil pan is already pretty thin there

[Jtuned_andy]

do not remove your main bolts if you dont plan to remove all of them. loosening only two will possibly warp the main cradle.

[Srsil]

Yes sorry loosen all the main studs after u finf what ones hit then remove the two that hit aslong as all the tension is off the nuts ull be good

[wangan_cruiser]

main studs hitting the upper oil pan.

[ShadowMan]

Lots of people with this problem. Here's what I did, at first i tried shaving the inside of the oil pan. I'd remove a little bit of the oil pan material and test fit and remove a little more and test fit. I thought I had it all good on my last test fit and on the final tightening of the upper pan bolts, the pan cracked. So I got it repaired, stuffed a bunch of clean shop rags in all the gaps around the girdle, then rotated the motor on the engine stand so that when I took my knock off dremel and shaved the actual studs down, a majority of the shavings fell on the ground and not down inot my freshly assembled bottom end. I really didn't want to remove the studs and re-torque everything. This is just the way I chose to do it. A more experienced or ocd individual would probably have removed everything and then trimmed the studs or probably would have known to begin with and never run into this problem. Have fun.