First, no you will not have fun, and second, yes there are frustrating parts. Just take your time and follow these instructions, but most importantly, BE SAFE!
Drain your oil!
Raise and safely support your vehicle with jack stands. No, you can't rely on your trusty hydraulic jack you bought from Wal-Mart to safely support your vehicle, besides, you're gonna need it later.
Position the jack stands in a place where they won't be in your way while working. I used the front support:
Remove the motor mount nuts from the top or the bottom, whichever you prefer. I went with the top ones since I have my exhaust manifold removed they were the easiest to get to. I would suggest going with the bottom ones as it will be easier to drop the mounts back into the slots instead of trying to put the bolts through holes as in the top side.
Okay, time to crawl under there and get dirty! Start by removing the mud shield (if you have one, mine was already removed) from under the engine. Then begin removing the oil pan bolts easiest to get to. Start from the front and work your way back.
When you get to the back side, you'll see the engine/tranny brace (two of 'em) that's conveniently obscuring access to the rear oil pan bolts. Take 'em off!
Next remove the two tranny mount nuts from the bottom of the tranny cross-member. I didn't get a good picture of the nuts, but you'll see them, you need a 12mm deep socket to get to them.
Now it's time to jack up your engine/tranny to allow for the clearance your gonna need to get the oil pan over the crossmember.
You want to have as much of the weight of the ENGINE as possible on the jack while jacking it up, so place the jack on the bell housing at the point where your engine and tranny meet.
Begin jacking it up SLOWLY, periodically checking the top side for accessories that might be stretching, pulling or binding. Here it would be helpful to have a buddy helping you, sadly, I had none.
Continue jacking until the bell housing contacts the tranny tunnel on the bottom side of your car. You'll know because your car will start to lift. STOP!
Now you should have PLENTY of clearance to access ALL of the oil pan bolts. Double check that they are ALL REMOVED!
Now, a REALLY fun part! Use whatever tools you have at your disposal to pry the oil pan away from the block, which should be a PITA if you sealed it as well as I did the last time I re-installed it! I used an assortment of flathead screw drivers and a hammer. Don't do all of your prying in one spot. Take your time and work around it, slowly loosening it section at a time. You don't want to warp the pan or bend that lip!
It's also important that you don't dig your screwdriver into the metal of the block or the oil pan because you won't get a good seal when you go to reinstall it.
Now that you have the pan loose from the block you should notice two things:
The oil pick-up is in the way and the sway bar is also in the way.
First, reach into the oil pan and remove the two 12mm bolts securing the pick-up to the bottom of the oil pump and one 10mm bolt securing the oil pick-up tube to the crankshaft cradle.
Next, remove the D-brackets securing the sway bar to the chassis. Just the D-brackets, you don't have to remove the end-links. Be careful not to let it swing down and smack you in the face for the love of god!
Okay, with the sway bar out of the way, and everything done per instruction, you should be able to slide the oil pan out toward the front of the vehicle.
DONE! It took me about an hour and a half, stopping to take pictures, using basic tools. Now get to it!
Created by: brian240grip from KA-t.org