Oil pan removal

[Johnnyboiranger22]

Long story short i have a fluctuating oil pressure gauge thought it was dummy gauge, it actually turned out its the oil pickup screen clogged full of the bits and pieces of old sealant(i will include photos of that. I am going ot try to remove pan with removing engine but will lift engine with jack. I was wondering to take off oil pan do i have to remove these two bolts? they are really hard to remove? This is automatic trans.

 

[tomw]

I am pretty sure the two bolts in question connect the pan to the bell housing. They must be removed to remove the pan. They are 'stiffeners' in that they make the pan and bell housing more of 'one piece'. Other designs had no connection that low, so the bell housing only was connected down to the pan gasket level of the engine. Connecting lower adds a lot of stiffness at little cost.
I understand that the engine must be pulled to have enough room to remove the pan. I do not know how high it would have to be raised to gain enough clearance.
Some have used bent-up coat hangers to scrape the bottom of the oil pump pickup screen with some success. They reach in through the drain plug and wiggle things around. The gaskets, made of cork:rubber seem to fail in certain model years, and allow 'crumbles' to float around and eventually start to clog the pickup. Good job, FoMoCo!, or perhaps good job, Herbs' Gasket and Pizza, making a pan gasket that tastes like pizza, and crumbles when out of the oven too long... Who knows?
tom

 

[Johnnyboiranger22]

I am pretty sure the two bolts in question connect the pan to the bell housing. They must be removed to remove the pan. They are 'stiffeners' in that they make the pan and bell housing more of 'one piece'. Other designs had no connection that low, so the bell housing only was connected down to the pan gasket level of the engine. Connecting lower adds a lot of stiffness at little cost.
I understand that the engine must be pulled to have enough room to remove the pan. I do not know how high it would have to be raised to gain enough clearance.
Some have used bent-up coat hangers to scrape the bottom of the oil pump pickup screen with some success. They reach in through the drain plug and wiggle things around. The gaskets, made of cork:rubber seem to fail in certain model years, and allow 'crumbles' to float around and eventually start to clog the pickup. Good job, FoMoCo!, or perhaps good job, Herbs' Gasket and Pizza, making a pan gasket that tastes like pizza, and crumbles when out of the oven too long... Who knows?
tom

Working on it now, trying to get motor mount bolts off and raise engine, battling the rain lol