I recently replaced the rusted out oil pan on my '97 Elantra. It did NOT come with a gasket, but there was one available,
sold separately. I bought the paper gasket anyway thinking that it must need a gasket. However, when I took the old pan off, there was
no evidence of a previous gasket. I put everything back together using a gasket, but it just didn't seem to bolt together correctly.
In fact, upon tightening the bolts, I split the gasket in a couple of places.

OK.. take it all apart, clean everything, reapply gasket sealer without the gasket. It bolted up much nicer.
However, its 2 weeks later and there is fresh oil leaking out from most of the seam around the pan.
The bolts are already pretty tight. I can't see getting them much tighter.

My questions:

The pan is not made to run with a gasket, right?

and

Can I just go around the pan after cleaning the edge and apply a coat of gasket sealer, or am I going to
have to do this all over again??

Thanks!

 

Follow-up..

Heres what I decided to do. I tore the entire thing apart.. again. I scraped off the old material, cleaned both surfaces,
and really piled on the black RTV. I let everything sit overnight, and then went around the edge of the pan where it meets
the block, and added more RTV. I hope it holds!

As far as I can tell, there is no mention of using a gasket on the oil pan on the hma website or the Haynes manual.

 

Unless one of our resident experts says otherwise, if it leaks again, clean up the mating surfaces and use a noprene gasket. If you wish, you can apply a bead of sealer on both sides of the gasket too.