Oil pan removal help 2007 5.7 4x4

My father owns a 2007 5.7 4x4. He had a valve spring break that damaged 1 piston. We removed the heads and replaced all the springs etc. We need to replace the piston that is damaged. Do we need to remove the whole engine and transmission? We are trying to completely remove the oil pan with the idea of removing the piston without pulling the engine. We can not get the oil pan off and out of the way even with lifting the engine several inches. Does the engine need to come out to completely remove the oil pan??



Thanks!

 

I've not done it, but.... Looking at my truck and the service manual (which doesn't specifically say), looks like you'd need to remove the front diff for sure and possibly unbolt the steering rack for clearance. The manual does show the small black pan needs to come off first. The strainer goes into the black pan which could be holding you up if hasn't been removed.

 

Its not impossible, but it wont be easy... You may need to remove alot of other parts and you may want to weigh your options with that.... You may have to remove it in bits and pieces.. as in oil pan first, then the sub assembly, then the baffle and strainer... As a whole it may be too tight..

 

Seems it might be easier to just remove the whole engine then? I guess engine and transmission at the same time...?

 

I haven't taken this particular engine apart, but it has been my experience with other engines, that you can't usually remove a piston from the bottom. In most cases, you have to, at the very least pull the head in order to remove the piston from the top. If you can remove the oil pan, then you can disconnect the connecting rod for the damaged piston, and with the head removed, push the piston up and out of the block. As long as the cylinder walls are not damaged, you can probably install a new piston, with new rings, on the connecting rod and reinsert it into the cylinder. (you may have to hone the cylinder walls so the new rings seat properly) I would examine everything carefully for any other damage that the valve may have caused when it dropped.

 

I think that's what he is talking about.. the head has been removed, he is battling with space to remove the bottom end... oil pan, baffle and the sub oil pan assembly not in that specific order.

 

Gone are the good old days. When I had my 84' Toyota with a 6" leaf spring lift you didn't even need a jack to remove the oil pan from the 22RE. Biggest mistake I made to that poor truck was putting a supercharger on it with cheap rebuild pistons and rings. More than once I had to pull a piston because the ends of the rings would wear out the ring grooves in the piston. But when you're young and you love the noise of a supercharger and the feel of that extra power life is good.

If you all ready have the heads off then I would continue down this road. It's going to be a fair bit of work but still less, IMO, than removing the engine. The good news is that the rod can be reused (so there's no messing with adjusting rod bearings) and the rings most likely are also good. When you drop the pan put a couple rare earth magnets inside it. I think there could be one on the drain plug but I would put plenty of them in there to attract anything still in the engine. I believe the intake valves are magnetic and the exhaust valves are slightly magnetic so a powerful magnet should be enough to catch any small filings in the oil.

 

OK, I wasn't sure the heads were still off. But you are right, if they are off, then the main battle is removing the oil pan. Not having done it on this engine, I can't offer any additional advise.