My 390 has a few oil leaks, the obvious covers, oil pan, and I am certain the rear main seal. Curious if anyone has experience removing the oil pan while the engine is in the truck...is it possible or does the engine have to be lifted?

Never done a rear main seal before, but I may be trying this. There is quite a bot of oil/crap build up also from a leaking steering gear box so I think I am going to at least degrease everything first and watch what leaks first and how much after I at least do the valve cover gaskets.

Thanks~

 

I've heard of people doing it but I've never done it in the truck but what can appear to be a rear main seal leak has many times turned out to be a leak at the back of the intake manifold at the outside back corners where the intake meets the heads .. The time to fix is when you swap in your edelbrock performer intake

 

Redroad, thanks again for the reply. I have a 'tick' from the engine consistent with RPM and I was planning on replacing the manifold gasket...sounds like the perfect opportunity to make sure everything is sealed up tight too. I will examine those corners. I know the valve covers are leaking, that's probably helping the mess out too.

I am staying pretty much stock with this project so no Edelbrock for me!

 

Make a weekend of it and change out your gaskets and clean things up. Then you can look for further trouble spots to see if you need to dig deeper into repairs.

As far as the oil pan thing goes, you have to watch out for your pick up tube. I've seen one determined person unbolt one engine mount and lift one side of the engine to be able to get their hands into the unbolted oil pan to unbolt the pickup tube...at which time you can then slide the pan out with no problems. It's tight and looked painfull at the time but it worked with minimal tools and just a jack and stands. I think it took me about a six pack to watch before it was done......of course he was uncloging his screen and swapping pans so he had to take it out anyways, not just to change the gasket. Reassembly was a hoot, so many "invented" words.

 

Appreciate the information...at least it sounds possible. As you said, I am cleaning and resealing the intake and valve covers first...then see what gets messy after everything else gets degreased. I have an engine hoist but it will most likely never clear the height of the truck which limits it's use but I would almost be tempted to pull the engine...maybe even get a 460 in there. Oh well, one thing at a time.

 

On the hoist deflate the tires if you have to