Oil pan removal

[oldgasser]

 Need some help before I remove the oil pan in my Ford  1956 with a 312 in it what cylinders do you have to bring up to the top in order for the pan to drop away to clear sway bar and any other obstructions.
My intentions are to remove & replace the rear main seal with-out removing the motor from the car,
Thank you for your time.
Ron.

[John Palmer]

Someone with more "Y" block experience will chime in, but here's a start.

Most of my time was with FE's.

Remove the distributor cap and secure it with bunji chord to the intake manifold.

Unbolt the motor mounts from the frame

Raise the motor and place a socket between the motor mount and the frame to keep the motor raised off the cross member.  This will gain you the 1", or 1 1/4" of clearance.  (note this is why you removed the distributor cap, to keep it from hitting the firewall when you raise the engine)

Drop the pan, unbolt the oil pick up and drop it into the pan, and it should slip out.  If not just spin the crank with a socket until the rods and counter weights clear.  Do not spin it over with a remote starter button at this point.

Depending on what "special" tools, and the type of rear main oil seals you have will make the next step interesting.

If you have a "new" lipped oil seal, I would replace top and bottom.  You can drop the main cap and use a long rod to tap the out as you tap the engine over with a remote starter button.  We always "offset" the seals just a little at the parting line.

If your using a old style graphite rope seal, we (from a flat rate dealer tech's point of view, LOL) always just replaced the bottom seal.  We would drive a couple of 1/8" welding rods that were sharpened to a point between the block and the back of the top graphite seal to tighten it around the crank.

If we were stuck with replacing the upper seal we had a special KD tool that was a piece of braided cable with a "T" handle.  The end of the cable was like a Chinese finger "handcuff".  You would feed it up between the crank and the block, then oil up the seal and feed one end into the finger cuff.  You can reduce the size of the seal end (make it pointed) by hammering them on your vice anvil like you do when "stretching" dried out cork gaskets.  You always want to remember the cranking rotation, so you can pull the seal in while bumping over the crank with a remote button.  The hardest part of doing a rear seal "in the car" is cutting the top rope seal flush with the parting area of the block.  We usually ended up with a single edge razor blade, held by a small vise grip for leverage and a handle.

It's a lot easier to do this job on a lift.

Good luck.

[oldgasser]

Thank you for your great in-put on the removal & how to re-install rear main seal.
Much appreciated.
Cheers Ron.

[lowrider]

If you don't have the pan off yet all you need to do is put #6 any TDC. No need to jack the engine up it will slide right out.

[RICH MUISE]

I'm curious..........op said "1956 Ford"..typo?

[lowrider]

The procedure I mentioned only works on a 56. A 57 you have to remove the sway bar.