Hi i am in the middle of changing out a cracked oil pan and i an having trouble reaching the last two oil pan bolts that are blocked by the flywheel. I was wondering how to manually turn the engine or the fly wheel with out taking apart anything?I was thinking that i could turn it manually from the front side of the engine where the belts were but it would need a star socket of some sort.If any ideas on where to get one or what else would work would be great. Also do i need to take off the belts in order to turn the engine or can i turn everything with a breaker bar or something. Thanks for any help!

 

You can use a 6 point metric on a breaker bar to rotate the engine from the front crank bolt if you're in a pinch. It should spin over fairly easily, if not remove the spark plugs. The 6 point will get stuck, but just flick the bar the opposite way and it will pop right off. If you have 15 or 20 bucks, run to Sears or AutoZone and grab a shallow 12 point socket to fit it properly (19mm if I recall correctly...).

 

Thanks it worked like a charm. I went with the 12 point which worked a lot better. Thanks for your time.

 

No problem. Cracked oil pans suck, glad I could help.