Yet another oil pan gasket question...

Anyway, I dropped the T5 in my 91 TA (LB9 car) a few days ago thinking that the RMS was shot.... turns out the oil pan gasket is FUBAR as well.

Of course, the pan won't clear the k-member without lifting the engine off its mounts.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there appears to be no feasible method of jacking the engine up WITHOUT a hoist and WITHOUT the transmission in place. Using the jack under the oil pan now only results in the engine tilting forward on its mounts.

With that said, my plan is to replace the RMS (since I'm in that deep anyway) and then put the flywheel/clutch/bellhousing/transmission back on.

THEN I should be able to lift the engine up because the transmission will be bolted to its cross-member and acting as a counterweight... right? My concern is that once I do have everything back together and the engine raised up, WILL THE PAN CLEAR THE BELLHOUSING????

Let me know your thoughts... thanks!

 

Once you've got the engine jacked up, the pan will clear the bell housing. It's tight but it will go.

 

take the bolts out of the motor mounts, tilt the engine at the harmonic balancer pulley. worked for me.

 

Why do you need to raise the engine at all? just take out all of the oil pan bolts and let the pan down as far as it will go. Pull the seal down around the outside of the oil pan and slide a new one up and rebolt in place. If you have a y pipe you will need to remove it.