Oil pan removal with engine in place

[Micah]

After buying my car and crawling under it I found a big globby mess welded to my oil pan. My guess is someone hit the oil pan hard enough to punch a hole in it and rather than replace it they just patched it in a really sloppy manner. The rest of the pan is pretty dented up and I need to check the gasket anyhow so I figured I'd just replace the pan and gasket anyhow.

The problem I'm having is that the oil pan goes right over the cross-member and I can't tell if I can reach all the bolts that hold the oil pan in place.

So the question is, can I remove the oil pan without pulling the engine and if so, is there some trick to it?

[So Cal Mark]

unbolt the mounts and raise the engine as high as possible, once the pan is loose you will have to reach up inside and unbolt the oil pump. Once the pump drops down into the pan, it will come right out. If the baffle has been cut out of the pan, just raising the engine will allow the pan to come out