Alright, just looking for some advice or maybe some direction towards a video or thread that I can't find on pulling the engine. I have all the necessary tools since on base here they have a hobby shop with lifts and cherry pickers and blah blah blah. Basically I have an oil leak or maybe 2 :banghead: lol. The guy who fixed the KDP back in the day when my dad owned the truck didn't do a good job with the gasket when he put the gear case cover back on, and I'm thinking my crank seal is leaking as well. And my oil pan gasket is going, which to my understanding you basically have to pull the engine due to that snug crossmember in the way. Can anyone help me out that has done this before? Just looking for maybe some pointers or warnings against some of the things people ran into. I am going to take the engine mounts off from the bolts on the block instead of the slots to make it easier to put back in. And while I have it out is their anything else I should take care of? Thanks!!! Scotty

You want to talk to ISX he's the 12V guru on site here...

Ya lol I was hoping he would see this and chime in . If he takes a while I might PM the guy. He does know a lot and I'm pretty sure he's done it a few times just for fun haha.

Ya lol I was hoping he would see this and chime in . If he takes a while I might PM the guy. He does know a lot and I'm pretty sure he's done it a few times just for fun haha.

That I don't doubt...

It's a blast! The biggest thing was to do it the way you said, taking the bolts out of the mount brackets instead of messing with the slots. Those slots are a pain because the back of the engine just hits the cowl so you just fight it the whole time. The power steering pump is a little bit of a pain as well. Yeah you gotta take the oil pan off to get the engine out. I've read some people have gotten away with it doing a body lift or something. Other than that it's pretty simple. Chilton's manuals give a good enough outline of everything. If you take the fan and fan shroud off you can probably squeeze it out without messing with the radiator but I chose to take all of that off and swing the condensor out of the way (hang it on the hood). Just take your time, it's easy. Oh and I pulled it so I could helicoil the AFC mount holes on the injection pump lol. So I had a reason!

Ya I've helped take a 360 out of a buddies 97 1/2 ton and we didn't take the mounts off and with 3 of us all mangled up and trying our hardest it took at least an hour and a whole lot of frustration to line everything up and get it back in because of the cowl . So I'd rather not go through that again haha. Well should I even bother taking the engine out? Is it possible to pull the pan and put some RTV on there and reinstalling it with the engine in there?

Well you kinda have to do it that way even if you pull it. I use "The right stuff" and it seals in like 5 minutes so you put the engine back in and get it over the oil pan then put it on and slam it on. Taking the engine out is pointless if the oil pan is the only thing. The only problem is getting all the old crap off the surfaces. If you could get the old crap off then it would be simple, but the bell housing makes it almost impossible. If it were me and thats all you wanted to do that required taking the engine out, I would take the transmission out... The front of the oil pan isn't the problem, its the deep back half. If you take the transmission out you can raise the engine up a little, get your hand in there and unbolt the sump tube, then wiggle the pan out the back. Now this is theoretically speaking, I haven't done it that way so you might get under and look first but from what I can remember, I think it would work. Then you would just have to raise the engine out of the mounts a little.

Alright thanks I'll give that a try!! if i were to stretch a chain from the factory removal mounts and basically have no slack in the chain so when I hook up the cherry picker the chain won't hit the cowl do you think it would work? So theoretically the chain will be almost tight from each hanger mount taking away the steep angle so the chain won't hit the cowl since i only need to raise it a few inches? Let me know if I'm not making sense to you lol

Alright thanks I'll give that a try!! if i were to stretch a chain from the factory removal mounts and basically have no slack in the chain so when I hook up the cherry picker the chain won't hit the cowl do you think it would work? So theoretically the chain will be almost tight from each hanger mount taking away the steep angle so the chain won't hit the cowl since i only need to raise it a few inches? Let me know if I'm not making sense to you lol

That's what I did..bent the mounts from such a tight angle too lol. You will just have to look at it a little. The crankshaft is also into the pan a little so there is also that. But I think it would work.

I just finished putting my 12 valve back in my 98 std cab after a complete rebuild. Imho it only takes about 5 min. To spin the 2 front body mount bolts and the 2 front cab mount bolts out and also loosen the rear cab mounts, put a hi lift jack under the front crossmember that the rad sits on and jack it up about 4-5" and shove a couple blocks between the front mounts. Makes the whole in/out job much easier, no need to remove the motor mounts or the pan or the valve covers.