I'm in the process of upgrading heads/cam and thought since the motor is torn down, now would be a good time to replace this if necessary. What do you guys think?

Also, if I do have to replace the pan, if I remove the trans and flywheel, could I slide the pan out or do I have to lift the engine no matter what.

Thanks in advance

 

You'll hafta lift the engine, no matter what.

Between the depth of the crankshaft & the oil pick-up, the engine will hafta go up, or the crossmember down.

The dent does look bad, but if it isn't leaking, I dunno it would be a major concern yet either.

 

I've seen worse. The pickup for the pump should still be far enough behind that dent that it didnt get hit. I suppose if you have the time and the desire to go through it, replace it. I'm still putting mine off... someone thought the center of the pan said "JACK HERE".

As mentioned, you'll have to lift the engine up (or drop the kmember) to get the pan out. There is no other way.

 

Replace it becuase of that little "door ding"? Not unless it's leaking. Fix it whever you pull the motor for your next rebuild/performance upgrade.

Is it my imagination or a trick of the camera making it look like the sump on that pan is hanging down further than stock? Stock pan sump is nearly even with the bottom of the cross-memeber for the exact reason that dent happened in the first place.

 

The dents were probably caused since the car is dropped, and when I bought it, the previous owner was driving it around with spare tire donuts for front tires. The pan is hanging low cause I pulled all the bolts to set the timing chain cover properly.

Thanks for the replies, I'll probably end up leaving it and replacing if/when I go 383

 

You don't have to pull the trans/flexplate to get the pan out. I did my oil pan gasket 6 months ago. take off the distributor cap and jack the engine up till you can put the motor mount bolts back through the brackets above the mounts and set the engine down on the mounts. Remove starter and Y pipe. Rotate the engine around so the crank counter weight on the front of the crankshaft is up in the block and the pan will slide right out. Mine literally fell out on to the ground when I spun the crank.