My pan is severely rusted and I don't feel like waiting for it to start leaking. Looks like there's plenty of room under there but the manual says to remove motor mount bolts and raise the engine 3" for clearance. The only obstacle I can see would be the front cross member and it's a couple few inches away. Sure would like to avoid this step. If anyone out there has done this please chime in. Until then, I'll be attacking this next week and if I can get it out without raising the engine I'll be sure to post. You can see my nice shiny pan off to the right. Thanks.

 

Its the oil pump inside the pan you have to clear.....

 

yes you need to remove the engine mount bolts in order to get the engine to clear the crossmember and as mentioned because it also needs to allow room for the oil pump.there pretty simple to change compared to some of todays vehicles.good luck.

 

New pan is installed. Here's how it played out. Firstly I removed the bolts to the tranny inspection cover but the exhaust prevents it from being removed completely. It can be wiggled around to get to the 2 rear bolts of the oil pan. The manual wanted me to removed the exhaust but I didn't want to start breaking severely rusted studs. The motor mount bolts were easily removed so I raised the engine. What I found was the top of the tranny housing was about 1-1/2 from the floor board underneath so that this was going to be as high as this engine was going. Not the 3" they wanted. I also decided not to remove the fan shroud as the blades were going to just touch it when raised. I kept checking clearances as I raised the engine. The manual also told me to watch that the distributor cap doesn't hit somewhere but it's got lots of clearance. The pan came out with no difficulties at all.

Bottom line, I guess I learned about the vagueness of Chilton. IMHO the engine didn't have to be raised. I think the pan would have come out anyway. The engine mount bolts weren't difficult to remove or reinstall anyway but, I didn't have to:

1. remove transmission inspection cover
2. remove exhaust at the manifolds
3. remove fan shroud
4. possible removal of engine mounts

I also have to give a shout out to FelPro gaskets. Their system with the fasteners to help guide and hold everything in place definitely helped. Although I couldn't use all 4 in the corners because of space restriction, the 3 really helped. You can catch a demo on YouTube of these in action.

Chances are someone doing this same procedure on the very same vehicle are very low. But, if that person can find my post and it helps them....they'll make time to have that extra beer now!

 

Give you an idea how high the engine is at the motor mount.

 

try doing an oil pan in a 4x4 chevy.yours is alot easier,but good job in getting it out and back in.

 

thanks but no thanks! haha.......

 

Thanks for posting your results!