Lemme let you in on a little secret about the 4.9L I6 300. If you need to change the Oil Pan Gasket, be sure to replace the Valve Cover Gasket and the Intake Manifold Gasket. After the trouble I went through you will never want to perform this job again, I know I won't ever do it again!

I had no idea what to expect when changing out that Oil Pan Gasket. I had done some searches on here for it and it seemed pretty easy, with a few more steps then most gaskets of that kind need.

Here's what I did:

1. Removed the Intake
2. Removed the Valve Cover
3. Removed the engine mounts bolts
4. Removed the transmission mount bolts
5. Hoisted engine by using a floor jack and a cinderblock and a jackstand - my truck sits pretty damned high!
6. Hoisted the transmission using the same method in the front to level out the angle that the Oil Pan sits at
7. At 8-10" the pan barely squeezed out from the TTB crossmember and the oil pump. Pulled the pan out and started to clean it.
8. Cleaned the Valve Cover.
9. Cleaned the Intake
10. Painted both the Oil Pan and the Valve Cover (Old Ford Blue!)
11. Also needed to change out the Oil Pump (Got a High Volume Oil Pump)
12. Cleaned the screen on the Oil Pump.
13. Installed new Oil Pump with old screen assembly (it looked pretty darned good and it was just clogged on the screen)
14. Tightened up the Oil Pan to seat it to the new Gasket
15. Tried lowering the engine and tranny back down on the motor mounts...This was the hardest part of the whole process, lining up the motor mounts is THE hardest part. After a while I thought that I was going to have to get an engine hoist to rectify the situation. It turned out that I had to unbolt the motor mounts bracket assembly on the frame - just get them loose enough to wiggle the rubber part of the motor mount (the part with the stud in it) back into the recieving hole for one side of the engine. After getting one side in, tighten it up and jack back up on the engine making sure the stud from the motor mount is not touching the motor mounting bracket. Loosen up that bracket, wiggle the motor mount back into the recieving hole, tighten it back up and all should be good to go there.
16. Tighten the tranny mount.
17. Installed the new Valve Cover Gasket and Valve cover - It helps to get a shop-vac and suck up any debris on the top of the head before putting the valve cover back on
18. Tighten down the valve cover - BTW there is a clip of some sort that holds a set of wires onto the back of the valve cover...I had some difficulties getting that off and on as well.
19. Remove the old Intake Gasket. Install new one - I used a lil RTV to hold the new gasket in place so I could set the Intake Manifold down on it easier.
20. Tighten down the Intake Manifold and hook up all vaccume lines and other clips (i.e. the throttle assembly, EGR, intake, etc...)


My truck runs like a top now! I have never seen this thing have so good of an oil pressure as it does now! Very happy with the results. It took about 6 hours to complete start to finish. This job wouldv'e taken about 3 if the motor mounts would have cooperated and I could've thought about loosening them up to get them set back in correctly. I'm hoping that my experience with this will help any one else that has not performed this on this particular engine.

BTW, the paint looks awesome in there! It really helped to see what this truck looked like new! Every part that I work on gets painted to let me know what I have and have not fixed yet. So far I have painted both the TTB and a used axle that I swapped in (Gloss Black), calipers (Midnight Blue), drums (Midnight Blue), driveshafts (Old Ford Blue), frame (Gloss Black), coil spring bracket assembly (Old Ford Gray), Coil Springs (Old Ford Gray), Leafsprings (Gloss Black), all associated brackety with those parts (Gloss Black), and the fenderwells (Flat Black). This is supposed to be an off-road truck, but since I'm putting so much time and effort into it, I feel like I'd be doing her an injustice to take into a mudhole or rockcrawling. Man do I love my truck!

I'll see about getting some pics up for ya to look at.

 

Or

-Jack up engine and put wood block spacers over motor mount.

-Unbolt oilpan and remove old gasket and clean area.

-Slide new gasket in place between pan and motor- clean again.

-Bolt back up and drop engine back down- If you get the right amount of lift on the jack under the motor, you can wiggle the motor back onto the mounts pretty easy.

Takes about an hour.

Mine keeps failing (every five years) so I get faster each time.

Of course, mine is no show truck by any means.

 

Umm...what about the oil pump that i had to switch out? That requires far more lift than what you are describing. I can see the oil pan gasket being pretty easy to replace, although how are you cleaning the bottom of the pan to get all of the sludge and grime out if you are not taking the pan out from under the truck?

 

Your right about the oil pump- I just read the first paragraph and thought the gasket was the goal and the other stuff was might as well while your doin it stuff.

Sludge and grim in the oil pan I leave up to the oil changes. Last time I changed the gasket, I didn't even drain the oil. Probably not per the book, but it worked.

This is a workin truck and I just need another 50k miles out of it- it won't last forever because all the salt and rust up here in Michigan.

 

Yeah, I hear that...salt will kill a truck quickly, but these Pre's are pretty stout, so here's to hoping your truck lasts another 50k!