2 liter Oilpan removal

[James Seabolt <jseabolt@domain.elided>]

I'm looking forward to getting my turbocharger installed but the only thing
I am not looking forward to is removing the oilpan in order to have an oil
return nipple welded to the pan. 

I took a look at the Brookland's shop manual and it calls for unbolting the
motor mounts through a hole in the underside the crossmember and then
unbolting the crossmember from the subframe in order to raise the engine so
the oilpan will clear the crossmember.

Looks to me if I did this, it will be a major pain in the rear to get
everything lined back up again. Is there a much easier way to do this?

Does anybody know if this procedure is really nessessary? 

The other day while I was installing my 1" swaybar, I took a look at the
oilpan and it looks like something is blocking access to the rear bolts on
the pan. I tried to see if I could get to them with a socket or wrench but I
couldn't get to them.

I can't remember what it is but seems like it was somekind of shield.

Anybody know of any tricks to removing an oilpan from a 2 liter Fiat Spider
engine? 

Also is it safe to raise the engine by placing a floorjack underneath the
crankshaft pulley? Will I have to unbolt the transmission mount in order to
do this?

I know I could probably figure this out on my own, but I'd like to save as
much time as possible without having to spend hours studying exactly how to
do it. It usually takes me longer to figure out how to do something than it
does it actually fix it.

The first time I removed and replaced the transmission in my X 1/9, it took
me about 30 hours (over a period of 3 days). Mainly because I spent hours
just stairing at the car thinking ,"Ok how am I going to take that thing loose?"

The next time I got it done in about 15 hours because I figured out all of
the tricks. And a friend of mine who rebuilt the transmission claimes that
he can swap one out in about 2 or 3 hours! 

Any help appreciated!







James Seabolt -----> mailto:jseabolt@domain.elided
Webpage: http://pages.preferred.com/~jseabolt
ICQ # : 7344463

United States

1980 FIAT 2000 Spider (injected)
1981 FIAT X 1/9 (Injected)
1994 JEEP Wrangler (2.5l )
1976 Chevrolet Pickup (454 Big Block)