K20 Engine Crossmember and Oil Pan

[Chaparralman1974]

Hey everyone,

Well, I went to do the first start up on my K20, and I have an oil leak at the front of the engine where the oil pan connects to the timing chain cover. As it turns out, I put the wrong gasket (one piece felpro). I used the thin gasket instead of the thick one so I need to change it. I went through the manual to see how to remove the pan and it says to jack up the motor, put in 2x4's between the mounts and the frame and remove the pan. Well, I can't get it high enough to get the 2x4's in....I am about 3/4" short as the heads are already hitting the firewall. There still isn't enough room to get the pan down. On the K trucks do you have to remove the engine cross member? The motor is a 327 with the SM420 manual transmission. I do have a repop oil pan...it is a dorman one, but it looked really close to the original pan. Am I doing something wrong here? I will try to post up some pictures here in a bit.


Thanks, Clay

[58 Special]

Cut 2x4 down to the space you can get see if you can get the pan off.

[Chaparralman1974]

Ok, just a follow up....

I was able to get the pan out and the gasket changed. I did find another thead that discusses how to do this with a K5. The K trucks do in fact need to have the front cross member unbolted and slid forward. I also had the motor lifted about 1 1/2" with the engine hoist, and I still need to spin the motor just a bit to get the forward most counter weight on the crankshaft moved out of the way. After that it came out easy enough.


Clay