Part III

It's now about noon on Tuesday. Boat's out, stuff's packed, dog's antzy-pantzy, waiting for my daughter to arrive with my Mom's car/lifeboat. She gets there about 12:15.

I'm happy to report there were no glitches or Murphy's Law mayhem on the ride home.

4pm, Tuesday.
Get the Taurus off the dolly, and into the garage. Hop in the truck and head to U-Haul to return the dolly before they close. There's a U-Haul place right near the Target on Hwy 7/Knollwood Mall - about a mile away.... BEEEEEEP - WRONG ANSWER!
Survey Says:
"The City shut me down yesterday... they don't want a U-Haul blah blah blah $750 a day fines blah blah Can't accept any returns... go to Hopkins."

Get the (*)&*& dolly over to Hopkins, and dropped off. Hit the NAPA on the way home for a pan gasket, oil, filter, and some chems.

Finally get started on the entire purpose of this tale: How to change the oil pan gasket on a Ford 3.0 V6.

Get the car in the air, drain the oil, and start a look-see. Not bad! I'll have to:
- pull the trans inspection cover tin to get at 2 pan bolts.
- unbolt the starter and lay aside
- pull one of the O2 sensors for wiggle clearance.
- the pan should pretty much just fall off the car!
BEEEEEEP - WRONG ANSWER!
Survey says:
You have to drop the (*^$& "Y-pipe" to get enough clearance at the balancer end to get the pan off!

I'm looking forward to messing with exhaust manifold bolts as much as I'd like to stick pins in my eyes.... especially on a sideways V6! Well, things went in my favor, and the bolts worked like bolts should and they came right off. A little wiggling and the pan is in my hands.

Spend about 1/2 hour cleaning everything up, get the new gasket in place, bolt up the pan, replace everything removed, fill with oil, etc.. (about 2-1/2 hrs total) and fire it up.

BANGBANGBANGTINGTINGTING

WTF!!!

Seems that with the MINOR amount of wiggling needed to remove the pan from around the oil pickup, the .002 thick tinfoil "windage tray" got bent just enough to be in the way of the #5 & #6 rods. Dammit! It's 10pm and I've had enough.

Wednesday, 7am.
Drained everything, unbolted everything, and sure as shinola there's scrape/witness marks on the windage tray. A carefully controlled (I mean it took control at this stage) push bent it back in place, and now it's time for installing the pan gasket Round II.

I'm happy to report there's no noise, no leaks, the oil has burned off/no smoke anymore, and the car runs fine.... So, how was your weekend??

I think you only need to look at your signature on your posts and it explains everything very nicely! Maybe changing that to something positive will change your luck. By all means, stay away from casinos and lightning storms!

Maybe you're onto something... I'm usually a "glass 1/2 full" kinda guy, and just roll with the punches - but when the defecation contacts the rotary oscillator I seem to get hit full force! (I only go to casino's for the buffet, and in my profession lightning means blown up cameras - however, only to be repaired after the storm is long gone!)