What is involved in removing the poil pan from a 1978 280 Z engine? Must remove timing case cover and I understand that the oil pan has to be removed completely. Is this true?

Pulling the front cover does make it easier.

Look at how the engine sits above the front cross member. You need to either raise the engine or drop the cross member.

Don't panic. Pulling this engine is easy if you have an engine crane. A decent one will cost you $150 or so at Sam's Club. With a little practice, you can pull the engine and reinstall it in less than two hours.

Pulling the crank pully is a pain in the butt. Buy a six sided 27mm (I think, its been a while) 1/2 inch drive socket and a breaker bar. You will need it. Always replace the front crank seal.

pull the motor, it would be quicker in the long run. Ls come out very easy.

Well, I now have the oil pan off. The hard part was getting it loose from the block without bending it. I used a thin-stiff puddy knife and lightly tapped it clear around the pan. Once this was done the pan suddenly dropped and came completely off. No clearance problem. It came all the way out without raising the engine.

Now, I have reached the root of the problem, that broken off water pump bolt (the large bottom one) under the timing case cover. It broke off flush with the engine block. I tapped the broken bolt to try and loosen it. Applied PB Blaster to try and loosen the rust. I center punched the bolt. I drilled a centered hole and tried an easy out. The easy out did not work. All it did was chew up that soft bolt. So I drilled for a slightly larger easy out. Just chewed it up even more. The bolt seems to be fused to the block. I drilled it out to a diameter that is slightly smaller than the thread's minor diameter in hopes of getting in there an bending the remaining thin wall of the bolt inwards. I have used this method many times with success every time, But, that bolt will not come loose.

So, what now? Try and tap out the hole with the same size threads and hope the tap lines up with the existing threads in the block? Or, drill out the hole and use an insert? I am sure that this has happed before to someone because I think that that broken bolt sees water from both ends. So, it is prone to rust.

sounds like a helicoil is your only hope.

I have purchased an 8mmX1.25 tap and first I am going to try and clean out what's left of the bolt. Only three or four good threads are needed to hold the bolt load. And I have bought a slightly shorter and a slightly longer set of bolts so as to have some options. If that does not work, then I will be forced to do the helicoil/EZLOK/Keensert thing.

I'm, using a magnet and a vacuum to try and clean up the metal shavings.

What a mess!

Thanks for your reply.

Been there done that, stripped out the flywheel bolt holes in the end of my crank. Frigging lightened flywheel required the OE bolts to be ground down:mad: If you clean up the existing threads and there is space to do it thread in a stud instead of a bolt, you will then place the majority of the load on that and you will never have to take it out. You could thread it into the weak threads with some JB weld on it like you would normally spread on antiseize to stiffen it up in the block.

Thank you for the reply. At this point I need all the suggestions I can get. The stud does sound like a good idea. That way the threads will never be attacked again.