I have the same pan. Mine gets stuck too. I think it is the plate on the side that snags something. Later, after seeing the scratches, I bent it out of the way. It comes off easy now. Try going to the left or right before you pull it down.

 

(happy to see my kick-ass main girdle, which i have actually never seen before.)

i was able to get the pan down a little more, and fortunately, stick my thin camera phone up in there. i took 50 pictures, and i got a clear shot of the tube area. seems the piston ends and counterbalances are not nearly as low as i thought, so that's not it.

i with the pan hanging down, I can turn the engine by hand 360º without anything hitting the crank scraper. but i am not sure if i am trying to push/twist it the pan the right way.

trevor: any chance can you locate exactly where the interference was? i vaguely remember it was the back part of the curved pickup tube that was hitting. there is a little black mark in my photo on the top edge of the sheet metal, but it may not be a clue.

 

Last resort:evil:.

 

Looks like it is hanging up on your oil pick up screen and the louvered windage tray.

 

dale: the thought crossed my mind several times :evil::smash::smash::evil:

the bump in the block plate is not letting me twist the pan in the direction i think it needs to go in order to get it off.

i must be doing something wrong, i can't imagine this should be so hard, especially since i did it with my old engine twice.

 

Eddie,
Look at your first photo and try to visualize the type of motion it would take to unwind the pickup from the windage tray. I know it seems like the clutch backing plate is in the way but it's not. You just have to find the right spot and it will drop right down. All these trap door pans are tricky to wrestle with but some are really bad.
When you finally get it off, practice putting it up dry until you have the motion memorized and can do it one swoop. Then put the silicone on it and go for it.

Frank

 

Can you get to both oil pump bolts? if so, drop the oil pump (the pickup is attached to the pump, correct?), and you should be able to get the pan off?

Then you can take steps to make clearance for the install.

Hope this helps...

Derrick

 

Can you get to both oil pump bolts? if so, drop the oil pump (the pickup is attached to the pump, correct?)

Yes, but generally the pickup tube has a tab that is secured to a stud integral with a cap bolt bolt---note the tab on the tube in this photo:

If you decide to go this route Eddie before you get too carried away make sure you can see it and get access to remove the nut securing the pickup support.

Good luck,
Jeff

 

Wow...bummer!

What if you backed out the bell housing bolts just enough to give you some wiggle room.

Just a thought.

Good luck!

 

hi Frank: - i twisted, i turned, i fiddled, i cursed, i gave up, twisted some more, and then came here.

hi Derrick -

i JUST came up with that same idea when watching TV... the bolts (screws in this case) are clearly visible in my photo up top. that greyish thing must be the shaft that goes up, and that will drop down as well. i remember the shaft on my last motor was hex-shaped, i can see the bottom of this one is hex shaped.

after that, i will do what dale suggested and remove a bit of material from the louvered plate so it goes back on easier. of course, i will practice as Frank suggested first.

 

Drop the pump

Eddie, i have also had the probem and the way I resolved was to drop the pump. The shaft might drop out. Some have a ring some dont. You might have to remove dizzy to reinsert it.
Kenny

 

Eddie, i have also had the probem and the way I resolved was to drop the pump. The shaft might drop out. Some have a ring some dont. You might have to remove dizzy to reinsert it.
Kenny

The ring is on there to prevent the shaft being pulled from the pump when you remove the distributer. NO need to pull the distributer, as the shaft can not be inserted from the top.

 

mine was the main bearing girdle. After I bent part of the side scraper back, I didn't have a problem.

 

Rich, OEM and ARP shafts have the ring but several other aftermarket shafts do not use the ring. The shaft in photo does not appear to be stock . I have twisted several stock shafts and dont use them.
The color of the pan and pickup dont show to be a canton pan and pick up (from photos), the pump appears to be stock.
Kenny

 

Distributor shaft ring

What Rich said . . . ring is to prevent the dizzy drive shaft from "lifting out" of the pump when you pull the distributor, not the other way around.

I agree with Pedalmasher, try to remove the pump mounting bolts or at least loosen them to almost out, let the pump hang down a bit.
Once the pump is loose, it should have enough "give" (maybe with a little helping hand) to allow you to "wiggle" your pan loose. In fact, if you can loosen (not remove) the pickup bolts (at the pump) too, that may be your savior in this project. You're fighting some very close tolerances of the pan windage tray being "wrapped" around the oil pump pickup tube and your pans gates / baffles.

Have faith Eddie, it will come out . . . and when you get it out, do some trimming on the pan to help get it back in with a single motion.

Wish I was there to help out, 'Ol Buddy.:yes:

Doc :beerchug:

 

I had the same issue when I did my pan gasket - I had to drop the oil pump to get it off. I knew that there was no tab holding the oil pickup tube to a main bearing bolt so no issues there. There was no way it was coming off any other way. Once I got it out, I trimmed the baffle so I could reinstall it.

 

Your problem is the rear sump pan The baffles and the long oil pickup tube will prevent the pan from easily being removed with the block plate in place. About the only way of removing the pan without any surgery to the pan is to remove the trans and block plate, or just remove the engine and rotate it upside down so the pan can be easily removed. I can almost guarantee you will still have leaks once the pan is reinstalled because it's such a PITA to R&R a baffled pan while its still in the chassis.

 

I know it's a completely different pan but this is what I had to do to remove my rear sump pan from Breeze.

I think they make these so they fit is as tight as possible and that they expect them to be installed and removed w/ the engine out of the car. Mine needed to move rearward to clear which, of course, is impossible due to the block plate.

 

Jeff K nailed it. the pickup tube is indeed connected at the tab.

removing the oil pump screws made it possible to drop the front of the pan a little more and get more visibility, but that's about it.

the pickup tube is against the crank scraper, especially in the rear.

• i can't push the entire pan towards the passenger side, because the front of the pump hits the main girdle, also the front driver corner hits the pump housing.
  
• i can't 'twist' it a bit because the rear of the pan is flush against the block plate. also remember, there is a "U" within a "U" and there is only so much the rear of the pan can be moved sideways.
  
• i am convinced that the only way this pan went on is when the engine was on a stand, and it was dropped into place with a slight twist. i've fiddled with this for more hours than i can count.

i have a tremendous amount of neck pain from holding my head up off the ground and peeking inside for so long. i think i'll go finish up Breaking Bad, and get back to this in a few days.

:wave:

 

Or you could invite a couple of us over to just pull the trans/bellhousing/blockplate and have all the room you need. It's raining today, so we can be out cruising anyway!

Sometimes I spend 4hrs trying to pull a knock sensor from under an intake manifold when I could have pulled and reinstalled the manifold in 45 minutes. Funny how my brain likes to figure out the non-standard approach, especially after I've sunk 3 hrs into it already....

YMMV

 

Or you could invite a couple of us over to just pull the trans/bellhousing/blockplate and have all the room you need. It's raining today, so we can be out cruising anyway!

For the win.

 

Eddie
why dont you just loosen all 6 bellhousing to block bolts by a couple turns.
this will get you the clearance you need to remove the pan.
It would only take a couple minutes.

just remember to tighten them after the pan is back on

 

I would definitely try that. Maybe being able to move the pan rearwards, if only a few millimeters, will make it easier to "unhook" the pan from the pickup tube.

Eric

 

Eddie,
I forgot about your stud girdle that's further restricting your movement. Do you have a picture of the pickup tube? That might give some clue as to how it's oriented in the pan and which way you need to go with the pan for it to clear the hole. By the way which oil pan is that?
Frank

 

i tried, but i can't get any angled photo to show the pickup itself. the pan is from Levy Racing, it says "CHAMP PANS" on the side.

next weekend i will try turning the bellhousing bolts as Mark D suggested, but i think i'll also have to remove/loosen the trans support so it wiggles around.

worse news, now that i can see the area in the back of the pan, it looks like there was no leak from the oil pan, and it is indeed the rear main seal.

 

now that i can see the area in the back of the pan, it looks like there was no leak from the oil pan, and it is indeed the rear main seal.

Sounds like the trans is coming out anyway now. When's the pizza party? I'm good for $20 towards food....

 

I took one of those pans off of a Levy Stage 5 motor a few years back and it was a cast iron b!#*h. The removal was not very elegant but the corrective surgery required to put it back up fixed all that.
Frank

 

THESE are the ones i should have tried to remove. i am not sure if i can get to both of them, but if i have a second wind later this evening i may give it a shot.

i may have to re-install the pump to the engine to get enough torque on these. one of the bolts for the pump fell into the pan, hopefully i can fish it out with a magnet.

 

I have the same pan (Champ's) I had to open up the rectangular hole in the windage tray to get the pan to go on. I found this out on a dry run before I gooped everything up. The rectangular pickup was hitting on one side of it. If you can get the pickup bolts out you can maneuver the pickup a little and get it through the windage tray. The pickup tube is bolted to a main cap at least it is on mine.

 

dear diary:

it took me an hour, but i was able to remove the two bolts that connect the pickup tube to the oil pump. it took some fiddling, but i was able to twist the pump & dizzy shaft out. after that, the more-loose pan offered a bit more freedom, but sadly not enough to get it off.

it is now absolutely certain the pan is stuck between the "U's" in the block and rear of the pan, and the keyhole for the pickup.

i am very close. but now that the pan is more free, i may be able to get to the nut that holds the pickup tube to the block. if not, it looks like Mark D was correct, i should have tried the bellhousing bolts thing.

i hit my head on a jackstand and i'm bleeding. perhaps i should rest for a day or so.

:weight_lift: :weight_lift: :weight_lift: