Hey Guys and Gals,
Quick question, how do you remove an oil pan from a 88' Firebird with the engine in place. I removed the front engine mounts for a little more clearence but that only gave me 1.5"-2" before the bellhousing hit the firewall. I'm having troubles thinking that the whole engine needs to come out for this...

Reason for it having to come out was a grade change at a highway construction zone managed to rip a hole in it..:-/

Thanks gang for the help,
Rocker

 

How about unbolting the tranny and lift the engine up a little?

How does a change in grade hurt your oil pan? I have gone over bumps and what not but never had a problem. You sure your springs are not sagging?

 

I changed the oil pan in a friends 1987 Camaro (305/5 speed). The manual says to pull the transmission and flywheel. Unbolt the pan. And then pul the pan out the rear towards the rear axle. Simply turn the crankshaft to get each "throw" of the crank out of the way and it should come out. (I did this and cheated by pulling the transmission and lifting the motor slightly.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

And, hers was damaged the same way....

 

O.K gang,
Thanks for your ideas. I have since got it out of the car..first off its not my car so when I went to look at it what I assumed was a V-8 was actually a 2.8 V-6. What I had to do to finish removal was remove the distributor and drop the exhaust out. (thought this was done already. This let me get an extra couple inches of lift when jcking up the engine. I did spin the crank to get it to clear the front bearing cap as well. Oh, I also had to remove the flywheel cover at the bottom of the bellhousing, (manual transmission). Oddly, (or maybe not to people that work on these more than me), I found that this plate goes over the rear of the oil pan and over the years it managed to stress the rear of the oil pan seam making a 4"-5" small tear at the round portion of the pan. This I assume is from the flywheel cover vibrating on the oil pan over the years. Oh, and yes, our state construction crews leave drop offs that will kill a car I'm afraid...

Rocker

 

Just some FYI on oil pan removal. I have a 1985 Iroc-z with 305 - 5 speed and I recently pulled the pan when I thought a bearing had spun. If you remove the distributor and oil pressure sending unit, the motor will go up and back far enough to get the pan out. Of course, the y pipe, starter, flywheel dust cover, and oil filter has to go. Rotating the crank around helps too. Use allot of patience and its not too bad.