Another update....FINISHED!!!!

Ok...it took a total of 7 hours. I could probably do it in about 2.5 hours now...LOL

Another great tip for you....have your 13mm socket on a ratchet or small breaker bar. When your removing and installing the pan, you will want to rotate the engine a bit to get the crank journals and/or piston rods out of the way. Use your socket on the flywheel bolts....very easy and convenient. I struggled to remove, and install the pan till I finally figured out this one.

The old pan gasket stayed stuck to the old pan....same with the new old pan I bought. MB uses some kind of gasket sealer on the pan, but not on the block. Pretty smart...nothing on the block to clean up...and no leaks...obviously they do a great job surface grinding the block true. Now cleaning off the old gasket...what a tough job. I sat the pan on my lap in front of the tv for about 45 minutes using very sharp chisels VERY carefully. Then I wire brushed off the remaining gasket material...and finally cleaned up the surface with laquer thinner.

I used permetex RTV (the good stuff) for my gasket sealer...only on the pan side...and cleaned up the block surface with more laquer thinner. The RTV also held the new gasket in place while I wrestled with installing the pan.

Tip...the allen head screws are almost all in the front of the pan. Some have spacers of varying sizes, some not. Make some notes or diagrams on these particular screws. It will save you a bit of time.

This car has sat since Oct 1st with no oil, and not running. It was so sweet to hear that engine come to life again

Well...I guess this concludes our oil pan removal lesson