Hi all,

I spent all day today trying to replace my oil pan. I removed the starter and drained the oil and coolant. I only got to the "lift engine 1 inch" part, except when I tried to jack up the engine at the oil pan, the whole front of the car started coming up, not the engine--as if the engine is still attached to the frame somehow. I removed two nuts which I thought were the insulator support bracket nuts. Are there more than two? Did I remove the wrong nuts? I'm totally confused. I looked from top and bottom, and I can see the insulators. From the bottom, there was a nut on each side under what I thought were the insulator brackets. These are what I removed. They were angled out at about a 45 degree angle. I have a 1995 F150, 4.9L/5-spd/2wd. Suggestions would be great, I need to finish this tomorrow, and I'm getting kinda frustrated. Thanks.

 

how high did you temped going as that motor weighs alot so the front end will raise up as you take weight off of the front springs.dont forget to take off the fan shroud so the fan won't break it.

 

I want to say somewhere between 3-4 inches? I started to get worried that something would break lose and the car would fall, but the engine would be pushed up too high. Maybe I just didn't jack it up enough? Thanks for the tip on the fan shroud.

 

you will also have to remove bolts from trans. mount.

you did not have to remove starter.

after you jack engine up you need to put wood or something else to hold engine up.

do a search in this section, and the oil section of forum on oil pan removal for a lot of tips. that is what i did.

 

Well, I spent about 12 hours this weekend trying to replace the oil pan/oil pump. I was unable to successfully get the oil pan out. I was able to raise the engine an inch, and put inch-thick blocks of wood between the insulator and bracket. I did not unbolt any transmission mount bolts. I loosened the fan shroud and removed the starter. I unbolted the oil pan and rested it on the crossmember. I unbolted the oil pump. There was nowhere close to near-enough room to slide the oil pan out. Jimmying it around, with the front of the oil pan hitting the bottom of the engine, the rear of the oil pan was still 3/4-1 inch away from clearing the transmission housing to be able to slide it out. I investigated jacking the engine up more, but A) everything I've read says I need one inch, and I had one inch blocks of wood. Besides, at exactly one inch, the top of EGR External Pressure valve contacted the bottom of the windshield wiper motor. Both didn't look easy to remove. In desperation I removed two nuts which I thought held the tranmission to the crossmember. There were 4 other nuts as well. I think maybe they held the mount. I was too tired and frustrated at that point. So, I've used my weekend, and I will either have to take it to a shop and waste the time, or wait until next weekend. I can't handle the frustration if I can't get the pan out after working on it again. And, finally, If you are not a serious gearhead, don't ever listen to anyone who gives you a 3-4 time estimate for how long it takes to do this job.

Is there something I'm missing? Was the purpose of the transmission mount bolt removal to allow the engine to be raised an inch, because I already did that. And it wasn't even Ford's own service manual. Now I hope I didn't bend something vital. I'm just really confused at this point as to why my oil pan is so far from clearing given that I've followed all the directions in forums, Chilton's, Haynes, and Ford's Shop manual--which are all basically the same.

 

I found out the hard way you have to remove the EGR valve. I didn't and when I jacked the engine up far enough to be able to pry the pan out ( it doesn't come out all that easy ) I destroyed the wipe motor. That one inch bit may work for some model years but not on a 90. If I remember I had the engine up as far as it would go and still had to pry the pan out.

stractor

 

But if you pried it out, how did you get a new one in without deforming it?

 

you have to remove the trans mount bolts AND jack up the trans. or you will never get pan out.

this was not a 3 or 4 hour job to do, more like 8 to 10 hours if you do not have a lift.

i did not have to remove my egr to do this.

 

But if you jack up the transmission, isn't whatever is holding the tranny up now in the way of sliding the oil pan out? This is like an evil Rubik's cube puzzle. So, assuming I don't have to lift the engine any more, then the next step would be to raise the tranny about an inch--and in such a way that there is nothing in the path of sliding the oil pan out--another wood brace? I have the Mazda transmission. I loosened two nuts that were in the center of the crossmember under the transmission mount bracket. I figured if I loosened the bracket the whole assembly could be jacked up. Unfortunately I only have a floor jack, not a tranny jack, so trying to use the same pieces of wood that I lifted the engine with weren't working because the the jack was extended too much for it to work very well. I guess I could add more pieces of wood...

 

i had more than one jack, but my truck was on ramps so i needed wood blocks on jacks.

i had an automatic, but the problems of space are similar to 5 speed.

i think i jacked mine up and moved it to the side a little. you will have linkage that i did not have to deal with.

even then it took some cursing to get the pan out.

 

Did you use a floor jack or a tranmission jack to lift the transmission?

 

i used a large saddle floor jack with wood.

 

Wow you guys make this sound difficult. Can you rent a cherry picker or borrow one. It would make this alot eaiser. Here is how i do it as i have done it about 5 times and have also repalced the ROd and main bearings while in there.

I remove the two nuts on the motor mounts. One on each side. I also unhooke the ground strap from the frame to the motor as it gets streched way out when i pick the motor up.

Next i pick the motor up as high as it can go (touching the firewall). On FI engines it requires removal of the Upper plenum to get high enough.

Yes the motor will pick the vehicle up. The motor mount bolts are wedged in there when pickin up so there will be a little resistance. (when you put the motor back in you will see what i am talking about, you can't just drop the motor in, you will have to unbolt a mount from the motor and put it in, then drop the motor in on it.)

I don't undue the tranny mount or drain any coolant or anything else. If you are paranoid about the tranny loosen the nuts up. Why drain the coolant?


That is all i do and the pan comes out without and issue, might be alittle tight on a FI motor as you can't go as high but there is still room to get it out.

 

i did not say it was difficult, just a pain to get the clearance required.

i have fuel injection and i did not have to take off upper manifold.

 

My issue with regards to raising the engine any more is that the top of the EGR Valve is touching the bottom of the wiper motor. One of those HAS to be removed for the engine to go any higher. I could rent a cherry picker but A) I live in an urban area that doesn't have a bunch of tool rental places, B) I would have to get it to where the truck is at this point, which requires a truck, which is currently not-running (no friends of mine own trucks), and C) it's all a matter of raising the engine up another inch, which i could do by jacking it up another inch just as well. Now, I don't know about what-all would be stretched if I raised it another inch. I haven't looked as carefully as I probably should have. To me it comes down to one thing, about an inch of clearance. As things stand now, if the tranny was an inch higher, the rear of the oil pan would clear it by tilting. If I raised the _front_ of the engine an inch higher, the the oil pan could tilt more, and clear the tranny. As it stands now, I can't raise the engine any more, but if the tranny is easy to lift and brace somehow (like with a block of wood), then I could get it out without taking any more stuff off. If nothing else, I hope this thread points to all the issues that can one can run into.