heavier weight oil, good idea? Options

[celicamike]

Hey guys, I've been living with a small oil leak for a while now and I want to go ahead and switch to 10w-40 to see if I can minimize leakage. What I want to know is will this work? and more importantly, could this cause me any problems?

[alltracman78]

I don't believe you have to remove the front to rear cross member, but I might be wrong....

Drop exhaust.
There is a brace on the front of the engine to trans IIRC.
Remove this.
Loosen bolts/nuts on pan [10mm].
Remove pan [gotta break loose from engine, be careful if you use a prybar/screwdriver, you can easily scratch the aluminum on the oil pump/crank seal housing and bend the oil pan].
Clean surface [If there are scratches in the paint it WILL leak no matter how well you clean it. Oil hides in the edges of the scratches. How bad it leaks depends on how bad the scratches are. Personally I get rid of ALL the paint and seal the metal surface.].
USE BLUE THREADLOCKER TO KEEP THE NUTS/BOLTS FROM LOOSENING.
They WILL loosen if you don't.
And don't use red, make sure you use blue.

You might want to get a exhaust seal while you're at it.
And black RTV is best for the pan. That or the Toyota stuff, but that runs ~ $20 a tube.