replacing oil pan gasket and front crank seal

I took the van (caravan 2000, 3.8) to a shop, he looked at it and said:
oil pan gasket and front crank seal has to be replaced.
the labour would be 3.5 hr ($300), Do you think if thats DIY job, $400 is
much mony for me.
Thanks agin for your suggestions-Rob

"duty-honor-country" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Rob wrote:
> > I bought my 2000 Grand Caravan 3.8, 176000KM about 2 weeks ago, and have
> > driven it about 2500KM so far. When I checked the engine oil last night,
I
> > noticed it lost the oil to the min. I put a cardboard under the car, and
> > this morning noticed an oil spot on it. So do you know if this is easy
to
> > fix, where should I start checking.
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any help-Rob
>
>
> things to check- oil leaks occur from the following:
>
> front main seal- a job but can be done at home
> rear main seal- a REAL job- you have to pull the transmission off, and
> pull the oil pan to change it sometimes
> valve cover gaskets- easy to change usually
> front timing cover gasket- quite a job
> also look at your oil filter area, any other area where a distributor,
> sensor, etc. goes into the engine
>
> one way to approach this is, take your car to the spray car wash,
> totally clean it with the engine degreaser and rinse, then drive it
> more and look very closely afterwards, with the car on ramps, to see
> where it's leaking from
>
> good luck
>

Rob wrote:
> I took the van (caravan 2000, 3.8) to a shop, he looked at it and said:
> oil pan gasket and front crank seal has to be replaced.
> the labour would be 3.5 hr ($300), Do you think if thats DIY job, $400 is
> much mony for me.
> Thanks agin for your suggestions-Rob
>
> "duty-honor-country" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> >
> > Rob wrote:
> > > I bought my 2000 Grand Caravan 3.8, 176000KM about 2 weeks ago, and have
> > > driven it about 2500KM so far. When I checked the engine oil last night,
> I
> > > noticed it lost the oil to the min. I put a cardboard under the car, and
> > > this morning noticed an oil spot on it. So do you know if this is easy
> to
> > > fix, where should I start checking.
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance for any help-Rob


Rob- get a good shop manual that details the pan removal-gasket change
and front main seal removal/replacement- read it thoroughly- if it
sounds like someone you can do, have at it- if not, take it somewhere
and pay