Oil Pan... How the F*!% do you remove this thing? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

haux · 05-30-2010, 10:11 PM

I just spent six hours trying to remove the oil pan. The keyword here is try... meaning it didn't happen. I finally got the bolts/nuts removed with a couple hours of sunlight to spare. Two of them took me forever because no tool I had could reach them well enough. Then I had to use a long screwdriver and hammer to separate the pan from the rest of the motor (after trying for a while by hand). It still wouldn't pull out. There's a clamp sort of thing holding the exhaust pipe that's covering part of the pan. I got that removed. It was looking better... but now there's some crap behind the oil pan that's preventing it from being pulled out.

Do I really have to remove the exhaust pipe? I tried, and one of the nuts already got ruined. They're gonna have to be sawed off if the pipe has to come down.

What a pain in the ass.

EDIT: If anyone has been able to do this without unbolting the flex pipe (in my case, CUTTING the bolts off), please post your tips. I'm without a car until it's finished.)

EEngineer · 05-30-2010, 10:15 PM

why u need to remove the pan?

Chris Crash · 05-30-2010, 10:19 PM

I'm pretty sure that you do need to unbolt the flex pipe from the header.

you MIGHT be able to leave the cat attached and have enough room pushing the flex pipe down.

haux · 05-30-2010, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EEngineer

why u need to remove the pan?

A gnome came to me in my sleep and told me there was treasure inside.

...I'm replacing the oil pan gasket and oil pickup/strainer. The gasket has a small leak. The replacement of the strainer and dropping of the pan as a whole is something I'm doing in an attempt to diagnose another "problem."

haux · 05-30-2010, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Crash

I'm pretty sure that you do need to unbolt the flex pipe from the header.

you MIGHT be able to leave the cat attached and have enough room pushing the flex pipe down.

Here's a thread from several months ago where a guy says he wiggled his out without removing (I assume that also implies unbolting) the flex pipe.

Oil Pan Removal

...I assumed I would have the same luck. I guess that's too much to ask for!

haux · 05-31-2010, 01:27 PM

Does anyone have any other ideas? Working on it again today... hoping I don't have to cut those bolts off.

Rattlin_Steele · 05-31-2010, 01:42 PM

What about the lower transmission cover plate? (assuming automatic here) How did you deal with that foam piece that covers the the shallow end of the oil pan? I would think that might be in the way.

haux · 05-31-2010, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rattlin_Steele

What about the lower transmission cover plate? (assuming automatic here) How did you deal with that foam piece that covers the the shallow end of the oil pan? I would think that might be in the way.

Cover place? And yes, it's an automatic.

The foam piece had to be removed... in pieces. I didn't replace it with a new one.

haux · 05-31-2010, 08:08 PM

Ok, so first thing today, I was able to remove two of the three nuts holding the flex pipe to the exhaust manifold. The third one was damaged while trying to use an impact gun the day before. I removed a couple of brackets to provide more of a clearance, and my dad was able to saw the nut enough to weaken it for removal... without damaging the stud bolt. After that, the pipe separated easily.

However, that wasn't enough! There was still a bracket that the pan was getting hooked on. I had to remove that, and upon re-installation, I had to remove another bracket to get one of the 17 bolts back in.

Quite a pain the butt I've gotta say, just to remove the friggin' pan.
Oh well, it's done.

Also, I hope some silicone getting into the pan won't be a big deal. My dad was pretty liberal with the RTV... maybe it will drain out after the next oil change?