I have recently purchased a 1990 ford lariat 4x4 pickup with a rusty oil pan, it doesn't look possible to change this without lifting the motor somewhat. Has anyone ever changed one of these before and should I consider changing the oil pump while I.m in there? I have 167,000km on the engine

 

Search, this has been covered many times.

 

I have outlined the steps to easily remove and replace the pan gasket on our V8 EFI trucks. The first time I did this it took me 4 days of scratching my head and getting fumed. I came within 1 bolt of having my transmission removed to get the pan out! Don't worry, the motor and transmission can stay put!
If you follow these steps you can have it done in about 3 hours or less.

(NOTE: If there is any attaching points for the transfer case to frame you must address this as it isn't in these steps as my truck is a 2WD)

1) Unbolt the tranny at the mounts on the X-member (2 nuts), and unbolt the linkage from the frame (2 bolts). Raise the tranny with a floor jack using a piece of wood under the pan. Raise it enough to place a 1x4 piece of wood between the mount studs and X-member and lower tranny onto the wood. This places the tranny at the right angle and keeps it from sliding forward. Without doing this, the pan gets caught on the tranny and the X-member, making it impossible to remove the pan.
2) Remove the upper intake, this gives you a LOT of room.. (If carbed, skip this step)
3) Remove the motor mount nuts and raise the motor with a bottle jack at the balancer as far as it will go (I didn't have a problem with tranny lines at all). I used a 4X4 piece of wood under the bottle jack to give me additional height. Just leave the jack under it without blocking the motor with wood as the book instructs you to, this just lowers the motor which you do not want.
4) Unbolt the pan and let it rest on the X-member.
5) Unbolt the oil pump and pickup tube, let them fall in the pan. If you have done it the way outlined here the pan will literally slip right out. If you don't have a bottle jack - get one!

To install -
(Use a one-piece gasket)
1) Install gasket
When I reinstalled the new pan gasket I did it differently than most would have, but was very easy and sealed good. Before installing the new pump and pickup tube, I cleaned the block surface and pan rail with brake cleaner. Then I attached the gasket with all the pan bolts to the block. Then I removed 2 or 3 bolts at a time as I applied a thin smear (not a bead) of permatex to the block and sealed that part of the gasket as I went. By the time you have all the bolts removed the gasket is sealed to the block and will not fall off or become a pain to start the bolts.
2) Set the pan on X-member.
3) Install oil pump (new) and driveshaft with the distributor still installed. I tried it with both installed and removed. I found that with the distributor installed it helps locate and hold the shaft in place.
4) Now bolt up the pickup tube to the pump and the #5 main stud.
5) Bolt the pan up, you don't have to worry about the gasket if you did it like I did. Now just lower the motor and trans back down and button it up.

 

Thanks, I hope all will go well and I'm ready to give it a try, garages around here are saying 8 hrs to do the job and don't even really want to do it. I figure I'll save quite a bit doing it myself, enough to fix my leaking gas tank next