NestleSnipes

Just bought a 2001 Cherokee Limited 4x4 and noticed it was leaking a lot of oil. So i bought a new oil pan since the old one is pretty banged up and also bought a new gasket and real main seal. When I went to remove the oil pan the oil pan support bracket(53010511AA) broke in half. After doing some searching online and at local junkyards I can't seem to find the part and everyone online is either sold out or discontinued. My question is can I install everything without that bracket or is it really important? Or is there maybe an alternative part I can make work? Thank

lawsoncl

Yeah, you can go without it. Just add a bit of silicon back there to make sure it seals up. The most common oil leaks are the valve cover and oil filter adapter, which both tend to run backwards and drip in the same place as the rear main. If the back of the block is wet, it's the valve cover and not the rear main.

lawsoncl

Not to scare you, but have you stared into the oil fill cap yet? The 2000-2001 Cherokees had poorly cast 0331 heads that tend to crack between cylinder 3&4. The telltale sign is coolant weeping into the valve cover where it can be seen through the fill cap.

NestleSnipes

Thanks for the quick reply. Yea my next step would be to replace the valve cover gasket just to be safe. I have hear of the poor heads on the 2001 and hoping I get lucky and get some miles on it before I have to fix that issue. I did check oil fill cap and havnt seen any issues there.