Pulling the oil pan sounds straightforward enough. It’s not. Not one of the bolts were rusted in place, which was a nice surprise, and probably related to the fact that they’re only tightened to about 5lbs. Two of them are, however, seated above the starter, so that has to come off, or at least be loosened as well. Here’s a hint. When removing the lower bolt on the starter, don’t use a ratcheting wrench. It seems like a good idea, until you realize that the bolt is long enough that the wrench gets boxed in place.

Luckily that won’t happen until the starter is loose enough to let you access the oil pan bolts and move on. Well, sort of. You also have to remove the idler arm to get the oil pan off. I picked up a joint separator for $9.99 at Advance, and hit the joint for just a second with a blow torch and a little Liquid Wrench, and it popped right apart.

Plenty of wiggling freed the oil pan, which rewarded me with this view:

That would be the drive shaft in there. Since the pan is off, I figured I’d replace the oil pump, which was entirely undramatic. The pump is about $25, and on there with two bolts, although I was rather surprised to find that the bolts were 14mm. Not sure if this indicates that they’ve been replaced before or if this is normal for the car.

I hit the oil pan with a steel brush wheel in the drill press, and painted it. It is now possibly the best looking metal part on the entire car, which feels a little off, but I guess you’ve got to start somewhere. I also hit the bolts with the wire wheel, and gave them a coat of Rustoleum’s grill paint. It’s matte black, sticks to just about anything, including rusty surfaces. I have become quite a fan of it.

I had a few more minutes available, so I dropped in some new plugs and wires, and next up is reassembly and setting ignition timing.