i just bought the truck for plowing and the owner told me the pan gasket is blown out the side a little, it leaks very slowly and drips onto the exhaust, im wondering how hard of a job it is to drop the pan...could anyone give me a lil heads up to what im getting into? anything and everything appreciated, thanks

 

Man this seems to be another common F-series issues from this generation! My dad discovered an oil leak about 10 years ago now on our 93, looks under there and then he sees a gasket hanging out of the oilpan! He had a dealership repair it and while they were under there it was discovered the oil pan itself was about to fail from rot (they must have some kind of metalurgy issue or something).

Well from my knowledge, they had to lift the engine a bit so there was clearence between the oil pan and the crossmember so you could reach in, disconnect the oil scavenger and then take the pan out. According to the shop manual, to do this the intake manifold assembly must be removed so the engine can be lifted up far enough without the intake hitting the cab overhang.

Im sure the other guys can go into better detail, Im just starting to get into these trucks but the oil pan on the truck is shot again so I read into the proceedure a little bit. I hope this was able to help a little bit!

 

Search it...I did a pretty lengthy write-up on it for my '93 (probably in about August or so of '05), which should be similar if your '89 is FI. I even had to pull the right-side exhaust manifold, as one of the flange bolts hit the firewall.

Jason