Oil Pan Removal in Vehicle ?
 

Can the oil pan be removed while the engine is in the vehicle. I need to change the gasket because I believe it is causing one of my leaks (valve cover is other for sure). I will replace it with a 1-piece gasket.

What can I expect to run into, what else will need to be removed to get the pan out. All tips and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

Shouldnt be a problem. It might be a good idea to change the timing chain cover gasket also to insure no leaks. Or be real carefull not to mess up the seal on the timing chain cover.

not a problem with a 1 piece gasket, as it replaces the lower timing cover seal.

Eddie, i have done this in a C10 before. if you just try to remove it, you wont be able to get it out. i actually lifted the engine a few inches out of the mounts, it gave me enough clearance to get it out without problems. only thing you really have to remove to get it out would be the distributor cap, to allow you to lift it up enough, other than that its pretty straight forward.

i have to disagree with you jeremy. i have taken my stock pan and even an after market 7 qt pan out without having to lift the engine. in fact there is room to spare when doing it. you shouldn't have to do anything but remove the pan bolts to get it out.

this was on a 2wd though, i have no idea if a 4wd truck has less crossmember clearence or not, but it ddosen't matter because eddies is a 2wd

Jeremy pegged it. If you take the dizzy cap off and lay it forward everything else should clear. I put a 4x4 block on top of my floor jack and raised the motor from the harmonic balancer. It still takes some finesse (thats a fancy word for cussin) to get past the oil pick up, but it can be done.... :cool:

i did it on my C10, and i've done it on a K10. C10 needed the motor lifted, K10 did not.

I have done it before, and didn't have to raise the engine at all. It was a fairly simple job...except for NOT using a 1-piece gasket...that was a pain in the butt.

Hmmm? Maybe since I had to do it that way on my 84 Camaro, I "assumed" I had to do the same on my truck. I say give it a try without lifting the motor, if it doesn't clear then lift the motor.

See how easy it was to resolve that dispute.... :p

No you don't need to lift the engine. I've taken mine off real easy without doing a thing but removing the tranny dust cover.

I could take either one of my pans off without lifting the engine, thankfully I haven't had too yet :)

maybe my stock 83 Caprice oil pan is what made the difference? i have helped friends do it before too, but they all had Caprice/Impala 350s in them. maybe they're different than truck pans? :confused: there was absolutely no way to get them out without lifting it, we tried that first.

Thanks guys didn't expect this many responses so fast :)

Do you think the fact that I have a manual trans will make it more difficult to remove?

Ill of course try it without lifting the engine first.
If I end up doing the timing chain because of my timing issues I will be replacing all those gaskets at once.

In my Chilton ( :rolleyes: ) manual it says:
To jack the vehicle up high enough for the oil pan to stand vertical because you may need that room to get it out.
You may (on some vehicles) have to lift the engine and to lift from the trans. If you need additional room then remove the motor mount through bolts.

When removing the pan do I need to worry about the oil pump or the baffle?

Thanks again

I didn't need to do anything to get it out. Unbolt it and it pulls right out no problem. Why do other people have problems?

Eddie...No and No.

Ditto. The only thing I had to do was remove the tranny dust cover to pull the pan back.

I wouldn't in the very least recommend lifting the engine that way. Its not that hard at all to have the crank snout snap off doing that. Then that is where the fun begins. Just something to think about if you do that.

There is a kit number for felpro kit that has the one piece oil pan seal, bolts, and four alignment studs. That is what I used and it was pretty easy. Just got the truck up pretty high, drained the oil, took the bolts out and dropped it, cleaned it up really good, then put it all back.

I've had to remove/replace several pans on SBC's in these pickups and have never had to jack the engine. Always just pulled the converter inspection pan, and oil pan bolts and down it comes. Once in a while, it took some manuvering to get the pan away from the oil pickup, but they always came down. Anybody know if the procedure is the same with the big block? I've worked on tons of SBC's in these trucks, but my '76 is the first BB that I've worked on in a pickup chassis. :gmc:

4wd only has to worry about the front axle being the way, the engine crossmember is right under the balancer and not in the way, as a matter of fact on my 4" lift 4x4 the pan can practically drop straight down.

Great info guys, thanks.

If your going to drop the pan and that motor has any sort of miles on it you might concider doing a timing chain and front seal. Motor with 100k on it I can about gurantee the timing chain is a little loose. I heve never had good luck getting it sealed back up after doign a timing chain without dropping the pan. Might as well get it out of the way. More work now but less in the long run.

Well I have some timing issues I need to fix and dont know if its distr. or timing chain at this point. Going to play with the distr. tonight and see how everything feels and looks. What really sucks is I dont know how many miles are on my engine. I put a crate motor in years ago and when I had the old gauges in. We wrote down the miles somewhere and I cant find them. Then I put the autometers in and I dont know what I did with the miles on that one. So I dont know how many miles are on this thing. Based on how many miles I drive and how many I used to drive I think I have around 80k on this motor.

I'm not sure why there are so many different experiences on oil pans out there. I, too, had to raise the engine to remove the pan on my 305 in an '81 3/4 ton, 2WD with auto tranny. There was no way I could get it out otherwise....I tried!

However, on my '86 4WD, the pan fell right out. I always assumed that you had to lift the engine on a 2WD, but not on a 4WD, due to the different style of crossmembers. Guess it just depends on engines and trucks, how they are set up, etc.

Casey