So I am reading in my Haynes manual and it seems that I have to unmount and jack up the engine to do it?!? WTF? Where do I jack up from? I don't have a hydraulic jack that goes very high. Also am I to feel safe underneath that thing with nothing more than a hydraulic jack between me and that engine?

If you wonder why I need to drop the pan, it's because when my car is hot (run for over 1/2 hour) the oil light flickers when in gear and idling very low (the condition disappears when it's in park idling faster). The thing is I suspect sludge in the bottom of the pan and the car did sit for a long time.

Please help me with any advice you have for doing this job safely and effectively.

Check back just a little ways in the posts and you will see this covered in detail (several times). You're in for some fun! Some wooden scraps and blocks will be helpful, by the way.

D/W

_________________

If it ain't broke, fix it!

Here, you may find this thread useful:

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11473

D/W

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If it ain't broke, fix it!

Instructions for proper use of a Haynes manual can be found here

Find and get a Factory Service Manual (FSM) for your year and model. They are not difficult or expensive to buy. The Haynes/Chilton type books are full of wrong information.

That's funny... I was thinking the same thing!

D/W

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If it ain't broke, fix it!

before you drop the pan(& all that time) go purchase a mechanical oil pressure gauge & see what your actual pressure is. If your going to drop the pan it would be just as E-Z to pull the motor.

That's debateable, and would depend on the car, options (a/c, power steering, etc.) It's a job, but it's fairly straightforward.

D/W

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If it ain't broke, fix it!

I have an 83 dodge pickup,I used a cumalong from a tree to the alt bracket,then unbolted the motor and lifted it until it touched the fire wall,that gave enough clearance to get the pan off,if you have allot of miles on the motor change the oil pump too.Mine cost about 45$,every thing went well,good luck,,,speedfreak.

There you go - the "shade-tree" approach".

I had a rod knock in Kermit a couple years ago, all my car buds said, "aw man, time to pullit and rebuild it", I "fixed" the crank from underneath(see post from long ago), new rod bearings, new oil pump, new pan gasket for less than $100, and a couple afternoon's work. Another nice thing, since I didn't disturb anything other than what I had to, Kermit ran exactly like it did before the knock developed (like a Swiss clock). I've racked up another 20,000 miles since then, and Kermit is still going strong. I don't baby him, either.

D/W

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If it ain't broke, fix it!

My '69 Valiant had the same symptoms last year. Oil light flickering, rod knock... but I didn't get to it in time. Engine came to a halt when I was about 40 mins drive from home. AFTER I had her towed home, she fired up again... but sounded terrible! So, after she sat for about six months while I debated what to do, I decided to pull the motor and dropped in another one I had LOL.

Lesson here: when you buy a car from an old lady who only drove 50 MPH on the freeway... don't go out and do 75 the day after you buy it, especially if it's already burning a little bit of oil!

Mark,

What D/W and others say here is pretty up front and true. I just dropped my pan and, with D/W's help and others, here's what I did. First, jack up the front of your car and put it on good jack stands. Next, do you have access to a motor hoist? If not, find one somewhere - rent or buy (mine was given to me and looks terrible, but she does the trick). You will need to take out the long, through bolt on the passenger side motor mount. I took the bolt off of both sides of mine, but you may not need to do that. That is NOT a big deal. If yours is like mine, you don't even have to take them completely out, just loosen them so you can hoist or jack up the engine. If you jack up the engine, you will have to wedge some pieces of 2 X 4 or something similar in someplace to hold the engine up so you can get to all the pan bolts. Most are easily accessible after jacking or hoisting the engine. There are one or two on each side that you probably can't get to unless the engine is raised because of the k-member.

Once the engine is raised and the pan bolts are taken out, you should be able to work the pan off. Mine is an automatic, so the rear lip of the pan kind of slips under the torque convertor inspection plate. I'll have to take that plate off when I put the pan back on. But again NO big deal.

If you are going to replace the oil pump, you will have to remove either 5 or 6 bolts. Apparently they changed the pump in mid-year (1974 or so?). The pump will NOT just pop off. It has the shaft that goes through the block with the gear on the end that engages the cam shaft gear to turn the pump. I used a piece of 2 X 4 placed on the surface where the oil filter goes and used a hammer and tenderly hammered until the pump swiveled on the drive shaft. Then, it was just a matter of swiveling the pump back and forth and working it out. At some point, you will run out of room and the pump will not come off. I took an old drive shaft I had and put it between the alternator and the inner fender and used that as a pry bar to rock the engine over towards the driver's side. A couple "bumps" with the drive shaft and the pump "fell" out.

I was somewhat intimidated about this procedure myself, but with the help of people on this board, it went like clock work. You CAN do it. An engine hoist really, REALLY helps a lot. OH, if you get an engine hoist of some kind, you want to connect the lifting chain to the top of the cylinder head. There are two places. On mine, the front one had a brace for the air conditioner compressor attached to it. I just took the bolt out, moved the brace, and bolted the front of my lifting chain there. The second one had some other thing bolted in place - just removed it, bolted the rear portion of the lifting chain in place and I was ready.

Hope this all helps. Like I said - I just did that and, in fact, it is still off and I hope to replace the oil pump today, so everything is all hooked up. PM me if you think I can help further. Good luck.

dave