is it a must to drop the oil pan to change the oil pump? or just loosen it?

is jacking the motor up and dropping the k down part of the process??

i got plenty of material to read about this but all of it with the engine out.... they all have the oil pan off to do anything with the oil pump...

also how do the roller rockers go , i mean the holes hafto face an exact side or either side is ok? they didnt seem in any special order in when i was taking out the trays.

 

Read www.ls1howto.com , all your answers in one place. Just drop the front of the pan a little for the pump removal. No need to jack up the engine or to loosen the k-member. I'm assuming you meant roller lifters and not rockers, the lifter oil holes aren't lined up in any particular direction on stock engines.

 

It's possible to take the oil pump off without loosening the pan at all. You just need a little wrench, a magnet, and patience.

 

I just lowered mine like the howto says (2") and then sent my wife and her little hands in after that oil pump bolt.

 

heh.....did you tell her that her life is over as she knows it if she drops that freaking bolt in the pan? I don't know if I have enough trust in anybody but myself to do something like that.

 

...and the luck of a friggin leprechaun. I much prefer to drop the pan as much as possible. I need all the help I can get to get that SOB bolt back in.

 

I got a tip from a friend also. Tie some sewing thread w/ a washer on the end of the bolt so if you drop it you can pull it right back out. We dropped it twice and just pulled it put using the thread and tried again. Mike

 

oops, yeah i meant lifters.

 

thanks for all the replies.

 

thats a good tip.

 

well oil pans lowered,oil tube bolt loose(cant find pen magnet at the moment to take it all the way out) ... now i got to go find where a snake is hiding in my garage besides the pen magnet i already got to find(theres a million places this snake could be just in the spot my dog was biting, grouling, and so on with-a pile of stuff i took out of my car(trunk matting, rear seats, front bumper reinforcment etc.) i thought it was just a lizard (its what he is usually after, and there always some around the garage, so i kept working on my car.. went out of the garge for a minute and came back in, my dogs looking all weird, so i go over to him and he grouls at me-( never grouls at me, im thinking wth ) so then i see a snake skin, looks big enough to put a hurting on my 15lb jack russel/faist. but now i got another thing to do before finishing my car...

 

Changed mine without dropping the pan. Small wrench. Pen magnet. I've seen it dropped in the pan. No big deal. It's the only magnetic object in there, so fish it out VERY EASILY with a pen magnet. It's MUCH MUCH easier than dropping the pan.

 

well found the snake.. but dont know how to get rid of it, maybe i should finish my car- with it running it would be a real good snake charmer (for most snakes). guess its good thats its eating the mice, but its already pretty big (3.5-5 foot long) and soposedly get to about 8 feet so i dont wanna be in the garage laying on the floor with it in there or it to bite my dog even though he'd probly kill it pretty fast the size it is now.. he is half jack russel( specifically rodent etc. hunting dogs). i need a long reach grabber or something.. or just let my dog go after it now that i know its not poisenous.

^ also thought about not dropping the pan , but looked to hard to get any kind of wrench on there. it was easy dropping the pan , but i still managed to drop a bolt in the pan... a timing chain bolt fell down but i easily got it with my hand. so im sure the oil tube bolt would of been the same , but my hand might not of fit in the pan with it up. a magnet would though..

is it a must to line up the pan with the special tool or just bolt everything back up and orient them as close as i can tell to where they were? theres a measurment in a book i got of exactly were its soposed to be but i think thats only in reference to the back of the block..

 

x2. When I installed my LS2 oil pump, I dropped that damn bolt in there at least 6 times. Murray's sells the extendable magnet pickups for $2.99 each. Fished it out every time with that thing. It's got a 3 lb pull so you just have to be close and you'll hear it click on to the magnet, as you pull out the magnet you'll hear the bolt drag across the pan. Thank goodness for aluminum pans.

 

Same here dropped that damn bolt in the pan too. After about 10min's of fishing around i got it.

That tip about putting some sewing thread on the bolt that's a good idea.

 

You slide it around the crank, with a good magnet, it grabs that bolt no problem. It doesn't go that far away, a couple inches at best. It's just a blind area.

 

I forgot to mention... the magnet will also fish out the stubby wrench that we used to put the bolt back in. Hahahaha!

 

Great tip, i recently did this and i have to say, thank god i did it.. must have dropped that bolt 3 or 4 times, and not having to fish it out with a pen magnet def saves some time.

 

Will deff remember that tip for the next install that I do!!! For sure.