Oil Pan gasket 99 5L

[wpurple]

Looking thru the manual, it appears that you have to remove the engine to replace the oil pan gasket? Why, and is there any shortcut to that?

 

[pumpkin]

I was curious so I went out and looked under my truck. All I can say is, it will be a MAJOR P.I.T.A to get the oil pan out for those of us with V8 AWD. The deep part of the pan sits above the exhaust and the shallow end is above the front drive shaft, rack-n-pinion and crossmember. Very little room to work with :thumbdwn:.

 

[wpurple]

Got under there myself today, actually it didn't look that bad, removing the front axle and possible the rack and I think it would be fairly straight forward.

My leak appears to be possible from the valve gaskets, but not 100% sure, all the bolts on the pan were tight, and a few I could get to on the valve cover were also tight. I hope raising the oil pan with a block of wood to install the TMS didn't cause a leak. It isn't dripping, just surface wet. I guess after 80,000 miles things aren't new either.